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UCLA Students Occupy Campus Building in Protest

November 19, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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It's getting pretty hairy out in the Golden State as the state's university system considers a major fee increase for students.

A committee on the University of California Regents approved a 32 percent jump in fees yesterday, and the full regents are expected to approve the plan today, the Los Angeles Times reports. The increase of more than $3,500 would make the cost of tuition three times what it was 10 years ago, the report says.

UCLA students occupied a campus building this morning to protest of the tuition increase, the Times reports. The protesters stormed Campbell Hall, which is in the northeast corner of UCLA's campus, and chained the doors shut. Students camped out last night, and hundreds more are expected to join the protests leading up to the regents' meeting, according to the Daily Bruin.

In a statement posted on UCLA's website earlier today, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block urged student protesters to remain civil.

"As you likely know, the UC Regents are meeting on campus in Covel Commons," Block wrote. "There were a number of protest demonstrations yesterday, and they are continuing today. It's important for us to honor the right to protest, but we also must maintain an environment of civility, respect, and safety on our campus. . . .

"Currently, a number of students are conducting a sit-in in Campbell Hall, and classes there have been canceled. If you do not need to be in the vicinity of Campbell Hall or Covel Commons, please stay away."

A Daily Bruin report says that more than 500 students rushed into Covel Commons yesterday, pushing into a blockade of police officers. Some officers wore riot gear and others had Tasers and nightsticks, but no injuries in the confrontation with students were reported.

We'll continue to follow the situation in California as it unfolds today.

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Tags:: activism,; tuition,; colleges,; UCLA

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The UC President has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paid job he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!
Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public?
Mr. Birgeneau's executive officer performance management responsibilities include "inspiring innovation and leading change." This involves "defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment." Instead of demonstrating his capacity to fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn't he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary trims? Hasn't he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina - which also hired Bain -- about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?
No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
Please help save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President require the UCB Chancellor to fulfill his executive job accountabilities!

Milan Moravec of CA 3:16PM November 21, 2009

Don wrote: "I will always trust Big Government over big business any day because you cannot trust greed."
I'm having difficulty digesting your comment. You see, the greed you accuse big business of is profit taking and businesses are in the business of taking profits. That's what they do. Profits allow businesses to pay employees, purchase plant, property, equipment, pay debts, expand, lower prices, etc.
This is not behavior I would expect from "higher education." They've blurred the line. Sure, like a business, they provide a service. Great. Then act like a business. That means little, if any, subsidies. Schools should build their business the same way businesses build their businesses . . . out of profits. If their service "education" is so substantial and so much better than everyone else, there should be no problem. But when massive portions of the University are funded by the state, well that's when they stop being like a business.
I've got to wonder what world you live in if you think "BIG" government is all that and a bag of chips. I mean really, "BIG" government represents greed, corruption, abuse, neglect on a massive scale. Ever hear of thousand dollar hammers, redundant programs each endeavoring to do the same thing, each draining the bank, and none providing the service their designed for? Did you hear about the massive $780 billion dollars that was spent to create millions of jobs and now you have the white house lying to the very tax payers that funded the bailout telling us thousands of jobs have been created or saved. Bulls---!!! How about the tax cheats Geithner, Rangle, Dodd, et al? What about the billions of cost overruns in government current health care system called Medicare and Medicaid? Suddenly government is going to turn a new leave and be stringent stewards of the public trust. Hell, this same "BIG" government has been stealing from Social Security for YEARS. How about sweatheart contracts to friends and acquaintences, big money donors? How about 25 cushy ambassadorships that OBAMA gave away to folks who lack the qualification to run a kool-aid stand? How about millions of dollars spent to build turtle tunnels? Did you ever hear about the big dig, a two mile stretch of hwy/tunnel in Boston that was 5 years late and billions of dollars over budget? I could write forever about how the government cannot be trusted, but I'm running out of characters.
Trust "BIG" government? What have they done to earn my trust? Nothing. If anything, they've earned my scorn and rebuke. Good luck with your trust, though, Don. You'll soon find yourself part of a kolkhozes and be calling everyone comrade.

david of ID 10:48AM November 21, 2009

Greed is soon going to destroy America and no one is looking for a good solution because in a monetary greed system we have (which is dangerously close to start treks ferengi that it is scary) there is no good solution because nobody knows what greed means any more.
Greed is apart of our lives, people who help the poor makes more than the president of the united states and paid killers like pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies lawyers, doctors and in some cases nurses get by with what they do because the victim did not have enough money or had a pre existing condition.
Supply and demand no longer applies because it is manipulated. Big business would rather throw away surplus than lower prices. farmers are paid not to grow anything, Oil wells with plenty of oil is shut off and technology that can save this planet or just save the people lots of money was put on the back shelf or destroyed to protect big business profits.
We have the strongest richest nation but the worst education and health care of any nation. I understand some undeveloped countries even have better health care than we do thats because we do not have health care we have a health industry, strongly reliant on immune system killing drugs giving the health industry even more power over us.
The true big brother has always been big business but big business hid that fact by fighting against big Government and they did not want the interference of the people anyway.
I will always trust Big Government over big business any day because you cannot trust greed.
Don D. Brock

Don D. Brock of AZ 10:03PM November 20, 2009

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