Campus Protests Demand Change, Evoke History of Student Activism

Earlier this week, several buildings on the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Santa Cruz were occupied by students protesting an approved raise in student tuition.

At Berkeley, upwards of forty students were involved in the overtaking of a classroom building. The situation, which involved a crowd of a hundred or so devoted students protesting outside the hall, chanting slogans against the tuition hikes, was not broken up until police entered the building at seven in the morning. In the end, three students were arrested.

The situation at the Santa Cruz campus, where an estimated 70 students barricaded themselves in a hall, was not diffused until early Sunday morning, ending a three day standoff. The student occupation of Kerr Hall ended when 70 police officers entered the building, dispersing the crowd when announcements were made that protestors refusing to vacate the premises would be subject to arrest.

The protests at the Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses are just the latest in a long history of student activism in the California State University system. The Free Speech movement was pioneered at Berkeley in 1964. Further United States involvement in the Vietnam War and the arrest of Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton caused student protests to continue throughout the late 1960's at the Berkeley campus.

The issues that student activists are fighting over today are not the same as they were forty years ago, but the fervor for justice, so passionately demanded in the 60's remains.

The student protests this week at Berkeley and Santa Cruz represent growing indignation and disenchantment with university administrators. College costs across the board have been rising dramatically in the past decade, and the recent 32% tuition increase approved by the University of California regents was seemingly the last straw.

It must be understood that education budgets all over the country, now suffering from cuts in federal money, are hurting. Despite this, the hikes in tuition are seen by students as an unnecessary way to attempt to balance a budget. The economic situation has already hampered many young men and women's college prospects, and a hike in tuition will only prevent more students from being able to afford higher education, with costs rising yearly with seemingly no ceiling in sight.

Sources:
Wollan M. and Lewin T. Students Protest Tuition Increases. November 20, 2009.

Santa Cruz Sentinel. Kerr Hall occupation: UCSC officials say student protestors will be held accountabl. November 22, 2009.

University of Cal Berkeley. Days of Cal: Berkeley in the 60.