UC Students Rally Against Rising Tuition Costs

by Sanjay Jha | November 25, 2008 at 03:13 am

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand of hiking tution fee in California has met with stiff resistence from students community. He has called for the tuition hike to help reduce an $11 billion state budget deficit. About a thousand University of California students have rallied at the Los Angeles campus to protest budget cuts and tuition increases proposed by the governor.

The students marched Sunday afternoon from UCLA to the Westwood Federal Building to demonstrate against a proposed 10 percent fee increase for the 10 UC campuses.

About 1,000 students from University of California campuses rallied Sunday demanding Sacramento stop cutting into education.

The students, who were attending a Students of Color Conference at UCLA, marched from Bruin Plaza to the Westwood Federal Building around 1:15 p.m. to protest a 10 percent fee increase proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 10 UC campuses.

The governor proposed the fee hike to reduce the state's $11 billion budget deficit.

"We have seen fees increase for the last 10 years," UC Student Association President Lucero Chavez said. "I mention the rate of inflation -- the rate of inflation is only 3 percent in the last decade, but as soon as Gov. Schwarzenegger came in in (2003) we've seen fees skyrocket."

To save money, education officials are also considering cutting admissions at the 23 California State Universities by 10,000 students.

"We need to invest more into educational opportunities, because that's what's most important to our country -- giving opportunities and making the American dream possible for everyone," said UC Santa Barbara student Alejandro Gongora.