2009 California college tuition hike protests
| 2009 California college tuition hike protests | |
|---|---|
| Date | 24 September 2009– 31 December 2009 |
| Location | California |
| Police response | |
| Arrested | >200 |
The 2009 California university college tuition hike protests were a series of protests held on college campuses in the University of California system and elsewhere in California in September through December 2009. Protests were mostly made up of students, although faculty, school employees and others joined in the protests as well. They were protesting against a 32% rise in tuition costs which was approved by the University of California Board of Regents. Protesters were also demonstrating against pay cuts and other cutbacks for the university system. The protests have been described as a precursor to the Occupy movement.
Beginning in 2008, the state of California was dealing with a major budget deficit. The response was major spending cuts for its state institutions. The University of California school system was also dealing with large budget deficits. In an effort to curb its deficits, the University of California Board of Regents decided to pass a tuition hike for all 10 universities in the system, as did the California State University Trustees for all 23 universities in their system. The Regents and University of California President Mark G. Yudof decided to increase tuition by 32%, which would push the annual costs above $10,000 for the first time ever. Yudof's response to the tuition increase was "When you have no money, you have no money" and said that it was an "unfortunate" consequence of the budget deficit.
A major cause of the university system's budget deficit was due to a lack of state support going to higher education. University officials said the tuition increases were needed as they have already done all they could with spending cuts. In the protests, students would point this out by showing that "California No. 1 in Prison Spending," yet only "#48 in Education." The tuition hike is a two-step increase with the first hike set to go into effect at the beginning of 2010 and the second for the fall semester of 2010. When the Regents voted to pass the tuition hike on November 18, 2009 many students as well as professors and university faculty broke out in protests. The protests have been compared to similar protests which occurred in the 1960s at California universities.
Demonstrations were held in September and October 2009 to protests state cuts and layoffs at university campuses in California. Major protests held on September 24 and October 15 were against staff cuts, layoffs and student tuition and fee hikes.
...
Wikipedia