On Nov. 18, the full board of the University of California regents approved an 8 percent tuition hike for fall semester 2011 with a 15-5 vote. UC students will pay $822 more, for a total cost to students of more than $11,000 a year at the public university system. The UC regents also plans on admitting more out-of-state students in order to provide more funds, as these students pay significantly more in tuition.
 Police attacked student protesters Nov. 17, San Francisco |
On Nov. 17, over 300 students and union activists held a rally outside the San Francisco hall where the regents met to discuss proposals to raise undergraduate fees and boost the numbers of out-of-state students. During this action, 13 people were arrested while demanding an end to the hikes and seeking entrance to the meeting to hear the regents’ discussion. There were over 90 police officers present, and students said the officers used pepper spray on the crowd and hit protesters with batons. In one instance, an officer pointed his gun at students.
All of these attempts to terrorize and disperse protesters failed. Of the 13 arrested, 12 face misdemeanor charges for obstructing police, and one UC Merced student could be charged with a felony: assault with a deadly weapon after the student allegedly seized one of the batons being used against the crowd and struck back in self-defense.
Regents voted to change the name of UC students’ basic education charges from “fees” to “tuition,” because the change will reflect the UC system’s new direction in consistently raising costs each year. Regents now openly recognize that the term does not reflect the state’s commitment to providing education free of tuition costs as laid out in the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education.
The situation will cause students to not be able to afford the ever-increasing tuition. Students are voicing their anger over the hikes that are becoming more and more frequent. Just last year tuition was raised 32 percent, and this last increase of 8 percent will be the sixth increase in the last four years.
According to a Los Angeles Times and USC poll, the only state-financed enterprise that Californians favored cutting was the prison system. Over 70 percent of voters want the corrections budget to be cut. According to another poll taken by Public Policy Institute of California, 75 percent of Californians say state funding for public higher education is inadequate.
It is no coincidence these cuts have become more and more frequent. Public universities are multi-million-dollar institutions representing massive profits for the capitalists through research and the development of skilled workers, while students and workers receive fewer services and foot the bill for their own education. The government says that these cuts are necessary because there is no money, and we just have to accept cuts in services and higher tuition costs. But that is a lie.
In reality, under the current system, tax dollars that should be used for education and other social programs instead benefit the capitalist class in the form of tax breaks, bailouts and financing for their imperialist wars. We demand an end to the budget cuts and the right to free, quality education. If we continue to fight, we will win.
