UC Students Strip to Protest Tuition Hike; Brown, Univ. President Give Few Details on Budget Talks (Video)
By Riya Bhattacharjee
University of California students protested tuition hikes at a UC regents meeting Tuesday, with some students, taking off their shirts and throwing fake money.
“You are taking the shirts off our backs,” the students yelled at the regents, briefly shutting down the meeting.
Students also spoke about a new Richmond campus being proposed by UC Berkeley, asking regents to make sure the City of Richmond and its residents beneffited from it.
“We, the students and Richmond community members are not your personal banks!” a young woman shouted at the regents as she took off her dress and pulled fake money out from her brassiere.
“This is all what we have got left,” she said, referring to her underwear, which had the words “student debt” spelled out on them.
“Rise up Richmond! Not tuition!,” students chanted. The protest was captured on cell phone video by other students, including UC Santa Barbara student Lacy Wright, who shared it with NBC Bay Area.
University of California police told the student protesters to disperse.
Gov. Jerry Brown and University of California President Janet Napolitano say their attempt to find common ground on the university’s budget is going well, but they are divulging few details about what their talks will mean for this fall’s tuition and admissions.
The two leaders briefly updated the rest of UC’s governing board on Wednesday about their work as the sole members of a committee charged with recommending changes in how the university operates and spends its money.
The governor requested the inquiry after a majority of the Board of Regents gave Napolitano approval to increase student tuition by up to 5 percent in each of the next five years, a plan Brown opposed.
Napolitano says they have met twice so far and are scheduled to get together again in April.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[Source]: NBC Bay Area
