14 arrested at UC Board of Regents meeting

[redqueen]

Source: KABC

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- University of California police have arrested 14 protesters and dispersed dozens of others outside a meeting at UCLA where regents are considering a student fee increase.

Hundreds of protesters, upset with proposed student fee increases and staff cuts, gathered outside the meeting at UCLA's Covel Commons Wednesday, chanting and waving signs.

The UC Board of Regents is considering boosting tuition by 32 percent over two years. A vote is expected by a board committee later Wednesday.

The demonstrators rushed the doors of the meeting room, and 14 were taken into custody after refusing to leave the room. As officers approached them, the protesters locked arms and sang the civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome."



Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7125735

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... more at link.


Hundreds of UCLA students gather outside the UC Board of Regents meeting to protest proposed fee increases.

[brendan120678]

1. "We Shall Overcome"?? Seriously?

That almost seems inappropriate in this situation, considering what that song meant back in the Civil Rights era.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. There may be a better link that you might think at first -

Tuition hikes most affect the lower & middle class students, which disproportionately are students of color. Rate hikes would least affect upper-class white students. Therefore, tuition hikes can be seen as a civil rights issue, because they disproportionately inhibit minority enrollment.

This has been happening for a long time - college is once again becoming an upper class white prospect, while the middle and lower class signs up at community college for tech degrees. It's the republican stratification of education.

[Igel]

9. The bottom group tends to get grants.

Some loans, but a lot of grants and work study.

That's how it's been for a while; it's unlikely to change. It's meant that UCLA undergrad student family demographics are usually strongly bimodal--lots of people in the bottom third and top third, no so much in the middle.

Now, for race vs income, there's a question. A fair number of "students of color" are reasonably poor, but UCLA is what--50% 'student of color'? If you mean black, Latino, Pacific Islander, SE Asian, and Native American, then you're more right. But "student of color" is a foolish term to apply to UCLA's student population because it typically includes E Asian students, and many of them aren't poor. Actually, given the way UCLA does its admits, a fair number of the other 'students of color' aren't all that poor, either.

Affirmative action admits tends to be poor. Don't tell me that they don't use affirmative action. They don't, but achieve the same affect by other means, so it's handy shorthand for the heady mix of alternative methods they have--geography, income, life stories, etc., etc., all tinkered and tweaked to push the racial demographics in precisely the right direction. (With typically disastrous results, but thus is it ever.)

Note that the top income groups in the US have been majority dem for the last few years, and in California this trend started earlier and is stronger. So if you had only the top 30% of students by SES at UCLA, you'd still have a strongly dem bunch.

[Bill McBlueState]

14. "student family demographics are usually strongly bimodal"

I hear people argue this a lot, but I don't really believe it. The claim is that below some income level, grants cover so much more of the cost of attendance that it's actually less of a burden on the student than if his/her income were above that level.

This means that if I want to attend college, it will be easier if I quit my current job and seek out one that pays less. What income level should I be aiming for?

[Nikki Stone1]

8. Many of the affected students will be minorities

Kids from inner city schools with no money for school

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Fourteen PROTESTERS arrested at UC Board of Regents meeting

would be a more accurate, if less enticing, headline.

My first thought was "They arrested 14 of the Board of Regents? Why? And how many of them ARE there?"

[redqueen]

5. I would have used a different headline as well.

This was a protest if there ever was one. The students were up against the barricades, shouting at the police.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. I'm surprised they aren't just cutting back on financial aid instead - more covert that way

and raising parking fees, lab fees and other 'expenditures' that students can't point at directly until it's too late.

[The Northerner]

6. Unnecessary?

I don't think the use of "We Shall Overcome" was reasonable at all.

My brother, who studies at UCLA, says the university is very low on money and thus they have no other option but to either reduce staff and programs or to raise student fees.

It's about financial problems, not civil rights problems.

I'm certain that many universities would raise fees in order to keep afloat.

[EFerrari]

7. Does your brother have better information than the union does

on how the Regents spend our money?

[Hekate]

10. The Regents are planning to reduce admissions, and this is one way of doing so...

The (formerly) greatest public college system in the country, if not the world, is committing suicide before our eyes.

From community colleges to state universities to the mighty UC system itself, it's changing in ways that are heartrending to witness. Our local community college, where Mr. H teaches, has long had a sweetheart deal with its next door neighbor, UCSB, allowing a back door into UC after proving oneself in the first two years of college. As part of reducing enrollments, this is slated to end.

I applaud the hundreds of student protestors for taking notice of the ruination being perpetrated on California's colleges and trying to do something about it.

Hekate

edited to add: Yes, the situation is certainly very complex and revolves around money, but it goes to a long line of decisions by the legislature, the governor, the Regents...

[notesdev]

11. What they SHOULD do

is cut classes and departments that aren't going to help the students get a job.

For example, do they really need a graduate program in Folklore? I can't imagine that such a program gets enough students to be anything other than a big financial drain on the system. They should go through the entire system and prioritize based on how useful the program will be to the student in terms of being employable. Start at the top, cut cut cut until the budget is balanced, and maybe cut some more and lower tuition costs for the student body.

[EFerrari]

12. Yes, we really need a Folklore grad program

so someone can gather, order and transmit the collected Crash of 2009.

[Bill McBlueState]

13. this is the university system, not the community colleges

Universities are supposed to serve a broader purpose than just job training.

[sudopod]

15. D-d-d-d-dupe nt

[sudopod]

16. The history of all those brown people isn't important anyway

Hey, how much do you think it costs to run a folklore department? Hell, I'll bet that you can pay for half a dozen folklore professors for what one stuffed-shirt business professor gets paid if my alma mater is any indication.

Engineer here, btw. Not my ox getting gored.