[caption id=”attachment_108889″ align=”aligncenter” width=”3600″] Several hundred University of California San Diego students gathered on the walkway in front of Geisel Library Tuesday Nov. 18, 2014 in a sit-in to protest a proposed hike in tuition of up to five percent for the next five years. Amani Proctor, a third-year student from Fresno is shadowed on a sign she holds up during the protest. (AP Photo/The U-T San Diego, John Gastaldo)
[/caption]
Students at the University of California Berkeley are taking the Board of Regents decision to raise tuition by 27 percent over the next five years sitting down — or rather, sitting in.
Calling themselves “The Open UC,” around 200 students have moved into Wheeler Hall to host a sit-in in protest of the new tuition hike. Students who are attending classes are also expected to walk out Monday in protest.
UC police have informed protesters that they’re breaking university policy by occupying the building. “But they have not really made any real action to move us out,” Kathleen Sheffer, 21, a UC Berkeley architecture senior and a spokeswoman for the protesters, told the L.A. Times.
The group is making decisions during what they call a general assembly, where votes are taken on any future action by the protesters.
The Board of Regents voted Thursday to approve tuition increases of as much as 5 percent in each of the next five years unless the state decides to devote more money to the 10-campus system. Under the plan, the average annual cost of a UC education for California residents would go up $612 to $12,804 next fall and to $15,564 by fall 2019, AP reported.
The board said the pending tuition hikes could be reduced or eliminated if the governor and Legislature raise the university system’s budget for next year.
But protesters don’t just want this to be a year to year judgment call. The Open UC is calling for no tuition hikes, more transparency of the UC budget for students, and the dropping of charges against UC Berkeley student Jeff Noven, who was arrested at the protest outside of the Regents meeting.
“We love our school, but we need it to be affordable. It is our hope that someday everyone in the world will have the opportunity to attend a school like Cal without having to make enormous sacrifices. But this is a long-term goal. Right now, we have a tangible and important issue of education here in California,” the group wrote in a press release.
“The UC system employs some of the greatest minds, produces some of the best students, and has been the foundation for the flourishing of the state. Reinvestment in the University of California is the greatest investment for the future of the state. An educated public is paramount to a successful and effective government. A school is not public if it is not accessible to a large portion of the population. Let’s make our representatives accountable for representing our interests, and re-fund the public university system for the future of California, the U.S., and the world. We stand in solidarity with students everywhere calling for affordable public education.”
