An estimated 600 demonstrators continued rallying today outside of Covel Commons, protesting the 32 percent student fee increases approved by the UC Board of Regents.
After the police-student interactions during protests on Wednesday, demonstrators adjusted the tone of the rally, emphasizing student safety and holding a “flash mob.”
On Wednesday, student protesters broke through the barricades and pushed past university police officers, attempting to get into the regents meetings held in Covel.
Police responded by using nightsticks and Taser guns to move the crowd back.
“We want to keep this a peaceful protest as much as possible,” said Emilio Lacques, national affairs director for the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president’s office. “What happened yesterday was a miscommunication.”
This morning, the student protesters organized a flash mob in which all of the participants laid down on the ground silently, intending to remain there for five minutes to symbolize their death, and in turn the death of their education. However, only one or two minutes into the event did students start shouting, “Don’t want to be dead; I’d rather fight instead!”
“(The flash mob) did go well,” said Randi Burley, a third-year philosophy and art student. “(But) a couple of people who disagreed started chanting, so it didn’t last for five minutes.”
Other students stood outside Covel, repeating “No cuts, no fees; education should be free” and other slogans. Students then dispersed to different areas of campus, including various lecture halls and Bruin Plaza.
The students marched at one point down Gayley Avenue, and continued through De Neve Plaza. Protesting also occurred at Campbell Hall earlier this morning.
USAC Academic Affairs Commissioner Layhannara Tep said that with the larger population of protesters today, different groups chose to go where they felt demonstration was needed.
However, students said this separation led to confusion, so they headed back to Covel to focus more on communicating their opinions to the regents.
“We want to send a message that this (fee hike) is not okay,” Tep said.
wilsun wrote:
Dear protesters,
Next time you guys decide to get together and show off your protesting prowess, please make sure you don't block the only entrance and exit to a parking lot again. Some people (like me) had places to be after class but got stuck in school instead. We good?
Hugs,
A-pissed-off-commuter-who-got-stuck-on-campus-for-3-hours
5:44 p.m. Nov. 19, 2009
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filiartjunkie wrote:
To UCLA,
As a student of UC Berkeley, i want you to know that we stand in solidarity with UCLA's efforts against the tuition hikes! Similarly, our efforts have continued to challenge this "privatization shift" in the UC system that is and will continue affecting all of us unless we do something about it.
Yudof's "Blue and Gold" program is currently being used to justify tuition hikes. Don't let this fool you! Our tuition is being used to pay for the construction of new buildings--and used as a leverage for new loans!
If Allan Greenspan, who served five consecutive terms as the Fed Reserve chairman acknowledges that 'the system' he had been working under, that is, 'the market ideology' was wrong--as we are seeing in this current financial crisis since of December of 2008.
There needs to be a change in the way we think of ourself in relation to society and others. What the UC System as a whole is suffering from is a "priority crisis" because it continues to follow the same 'market' logic of constant maximization--firing and cutting here and there; more to "top-officials". This is what's wrong in the UC System--the lack of want towards its own mission of "public good".
6:19 p.m. Nov. 19, 2009
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Dizen wrote:
“No cuts, no fees; education should be free”
- how? Calculate the costs of education. Subtract the fees paid. The difference is what taxpayers must come up with to support our education.
Look at the plight of California, its shrunken tax base, its revenue streams. It all has to come from someone, somewhere. It is understandable that some will find the increased costs difficult to bear. But if not you, then who do you want to pay for your education and how?
UCLA is shamefully overdue for an undergrad school of business so real world issues are discussed and understood by *every student* before going out into the real world ...where nothing in life is free.
We all want to make this a better world. That always costs someone's time, talent, and money.
9:05 p.m. Nov. 19, 2009
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filiartjunkie wrote:
To "Dizen",
Your logic is still caught in the "market system" understanding of the world. It is truly sad to see how hegemony is at work here.
In other words, you understand this current crisis as almost an "inevitable" event of checks and balances that had to come. And UC students protesting do not understand this. No, we students perfectly understand this current situation, and are willing to put ourselves on the line precisely for what we believe is wrong with California.
Let me explain, you pose the creation of a business school at UCLA "so real world issues are discussed and understood by *every student*". Yet, a business school does not solve "real world" problems it only benefits those who own the business!
Let me mention a few organization you might recognize here, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank--these organizations work for "business purposes" with the so-called "third world" countries. This is the economical imperialism of the U.S.--it modernized before other countries because of colonialism and slavery, once "freed" these countries are forced into borrowing from Europe and United States to "develop".
We see here how business schools create an ideology. Ideas that permeates of how the world should work this "free market fundamentalism" is the real problem.
The University of California was funded through the "Foreign Miner's Tax" in 1850 that was meant to provide a "social closure" to the livelihood of so-called "foreigners" that is anyone other than "White".
9:34 a.m. Nov. 20, 2009
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shanmerc wrote:
ok. i feel like i need to mediate here.
for me, both Dizen and filiartjunkie are missing the point. and neither is listening to each other.
what dizen misses is that California is the single largest taxpayer (to the federal government) in the union. our tax rates (though progressive) are 5th highest in the country. what filiartjunkie misses is that we are drowning in our own ambitions.
the point is not if we should defer to the market, or if we should run away from capitalism. the point is that the system is mismanaged and inefficient. i brought up the point about the money to say that we have plenty of it so i could make the point that it is not being spent in the right ways.
UCLA has raised undergraduate tuition $600 each year for the last 3 years i have attended. next year it will be raised by more than $1000.
annual tuition at medium range private university (IE not Harvard, which is very expensive) is $13-18,000 per year. i find being a student at UCLA to be cumbersome and the bureaucracy challenging. fees at every turn. counselors that do not help you reach your goals. teachers that are no compromised by undergraduate students. in light of the lack of care and attention students suffer, if this university is only $1000 less per year than a private university, i can only say it has become a joke.
let's be realistic in pointing the blame where it lies (MISMANAGEMENT and LACK OF FORESIGHT)...
filiartjunkie: this is the USA. if you don't like capitalism, you may feel more comfortable in Latin America.
Dizen: we are in CA, if you don't like progressive taxation and social services, you may feel more comfortable in to Arizona.
Goodbye
2:45 p.m. Nov. 20, 2009
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Dizen wrote:
Look up what it costs to attend Stanford and USC. Check Georgetown and George Washington Universities. Consider how much it COSTS to have an education. Then subtract our fees. You are not paying a fraction of your own way.
We can *pretend* to be apart from the reality of the "market system." Then you graduate and reality hits and you find out nothing in life is free. Somebody pays. Who do you want to pay your way?
3:42 p.m. Nov. 20, 2009
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