14 Protesters Arrested on UCLA Campus During Board Meeting

[Jeanfromfillmore]

This is just starting. They had no problem with giving instate tuition to illegals from Mexico along with grants and scholarships and such. But now those same students who yells and complained that the illegals should get those goodies and our taxpayers should fund it are now complaining that their tuition is going up. Did they think that they could be so generous with the taxpayers money and not have it affect them? Well now its come to bite them in the rear. They think that their tactic of throwing a fit and acting like animals is going to change things as it always has in the past. Well this time they made their bed now they can sleep in it.

These universities were the main promoters of all the problems we are facing now and they're caught up in their own crap and it's slapping them in the face. They taught these students how to be good little socialist/communists, now they are getting a dose of what they created.


14 Protesters Arrested on UCLA Campus During Board Meeting
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A University of California Board of Regents committee approved a two-tiered, 32 percent fee increase today that would push tuition above $10,000 at UC campuses by next fall, despite raucous student protests that disrupted the panel's meeting at UCLA and resulted in 14 arrests.

The full Board of Regents will consider the proposed tuition increase Thursday.

Under the proposed fee increases approved by the regents' Finance Committee, tuition at UC campuses would increase by $585 in the spring, then another $1,344 next fall.

Along with a $900 registration fee, the hikes would bring annual in- state UC tuition to $10,302, not including campus fees, housing and books. It would mark the first time tuition topped $10,000. UC officials said the university is facing a $535 million budget deficit, and the increases are necessary to close the gap.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside UCLA's Covel Commons, where the committee was meeting. Protesters who made it inside the meeting disrupted the session at least twice by loudly chanting slogans such as "We are not afraid" and "We shall overcome." Campus police cleared the room of protesters.

The crowd was more raucous outside Covel Commons, where hundreds of protesters chanted and waved signs. There were various reports about protesters throwing rocks at police, but the crowd was largely dispersed by early afternoon.

Fourteen people, including 12 students, were arrested and cited, according to UCLA. The university also reported that one student was injured in the crowd protesting outside the meeting and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Some protesters planned to remain at UCLA as part of a 24-hour demonstration until the full Board of Regents meeting Thursday.

Members of the Finance Committee said they reluctantly supported the fee increases, insisting they had little choice thanks to steep cuts in state funding.

Student regent Jesse Bernal voted against the proposal, saying that while he understood the reality of the UC budget crisis, the financial burden should be more evenly split among staff furloughs, campus cutbacks and student fee increases.

"Fairness seems to be highly unbalanced, ... with the burden being heavily weighed on students," Bernal said. "For this I'm deeply disappointed."

The UC Regents also plan to ask for a $913 million state funding increase for the next fiscal year -- with plans to cut freshman enrollment if the funding is not approved.

"The budget I have proposed will get us out of this hole and on to firm ground," UC President Mark Yudof said earlier. "If these cuts continue, we will lose our world-class faculty, we won't be able to deliver the education students deserve, and the miracle that is UC will be diminished."