Home of the "Banana Slugs"
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| Third day of fee protests at California universities |
| 2009-11-22 |
| Life in CA used to be pretty good. And the Dems started giving things away to illegal immigrants in order to gain votes in the future. Then they got into a drug-like frenzy of giveaways. The pols still seem to be in full-swing giveaway mode out of fear of changing demographics and hope that they'll be killed last, but like any drug addict, the habit's gotten out of hand and the unsustainability is starting to set in. It looks like the veil of denial has been pulled back a bit, at least for these students, who probably voted the Donk line. Dontcha sorta wish you had that money back now? Wait until the rest of the $hit starts hitting the fan, because that was just one tiny piece. Demonstrators entered their third day of a building takeover at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in protest of a tuition increase, an undertaking that a school spokesman called futile. The occupation of Kerr Hall is just one of several demonstrations across University of California campuses this week after the regent's board approved a 32 percent increase in tuition Thursday. University officials said the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increases is needed to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made due to California's persistent financial crisis. Protesting students said the increase will hurt working and middle-class students who benefit from state-funded education. On the Santa Cruz campus, where building occupations began last week with a library sit-in, about 100 students staged a sit-in in the second-floor lobby of Kerr Hall soon after hearing that the tuition increase had been approved, according to UC Santa Cruz Provost David Kliger. The students made a list of 20 "demands" detailing how they want the administration to increase funding, spokesman Barry Shiller said. But the school has no plans to negotiate the demands with the student body, he said. The school just doesn't have the money, he added. School officials hope the students realize that their demonstration is "not accomplishing anything" and is "just a disruption" to administrative duties on campus, he said. The administration will continue to wait out the takeover, but Shiller said he is unsure of how long it will last. The school hopes the students will leave voluntarily, he said. Meanwhile, uprisings on other campuses have quieted since earlier mass demonstrations. At UC Berkeley on Friday night, 41 protesters occupying a building were arrested. Authorities decided to cite them for trespassing and release them rather than take them to jail, per an agreement with student leaders, school spokeswoman Claire Holmes said. Three students were arrested there Friday morning. Fifty-two students were arrested at UC Davis late Thursday after they refused to vacate the school's administration building. And UCLA's Campbell Hall was occupied for several hours Thursday evening. The angry students are condemning a nearly $2,000 tuition increase. The first change, which takes effect in January, will raise undergraduate tuition to $8,373. The second increase kicks in next fall, raising tuition to $10,302, university spokeswoman Leslie Sepuka said. Students who live on campus could pay an estimated $17,200 in additional fees that include the annual cost of books and housing, according to the system's July 2008 finance guide. The January increase of about 15 percent is more than double the average public university tuition increase last year. On average, tuition and fees at four-year public universities nationwide increased 6.5 percent, or to $7,020, since the previous school year, according to data from College Board. Students eligible for financial aid and whose families make less than $70,000 will have their tuition covered, the university said. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #6 Every asset of Caliphornia has been ravaged to support the unproductive greed of the teachers' union and the prison guards. UC is simply next. Why should Berkeley be privileged above Cal State Hayward? I can't wait to see how they try to wrest Yosemite away from the Feds so they can destroy it. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-11-22 20:53 |
| #5 The question is whether the UC system will also drop a layer of management as well, or at least some of the perks that they get. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-11-22 20:16 |
| #4 It would not be all bad if the lit faculties were (inverse) decimated-- provided that the STEM (science-tech-engineering-math) departments are maintained at close to current strength. I know that scenario requires a bit of wishful thinking, but we shouldn't let a crisis, uh, go to waste. Our universities are far too heavy with nincompoop lit-crit-genderbender etc BS professors. What makes us competitive is basic research in the hard sciences. So long as U-Cal keeps funding those, we'll be OK. |
| Posted by: lex 2009-11-22 19:33 |
| #3 My sister just got her PhD from UC-Santa Cruz in August (computer science, so she is both employable and employed) commented this afternoon that this announcement is connected to a broad retrenchment effort across the UC system. Professors are getting pay cuts, adjucts and graduate teaching assistants are being cut, fewer student jobs are available, including subject tutoring...and seminars are being dropped in favour of 200-student lectures as a result. I imagine the English Lit. graduate programs are going to be reverse decimated: nine in ten gone, not remaining. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-11-22 18:15 |
| #2 UC Santa Cruz - Uber Liberal Arts Home of the "Banana Slugs" |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2009-11-22 17:08 |
| #1 Guess in a way I can't blame them. Would you want to pay that kind of money for 4 years just so you can be semi-qualified to ask, "Do you want fries with that?"? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-11-22 16:47 |