Police With Beanbag Guns At UCLA Fee Hike Protest

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(11-19) 11:28 PST LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Officers armed with beanbag guns stood by as hundreds of protesters chanted, marched and even took over a building Thursday on the UCLA campus, where University of California regents were scheduled to vote on a 32 percent student fee increase.

The UC Board of Regents is considering boosting undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — by $2,500 next year. The average annual fee for a full-time undergraduate would jump to about $10,300 — three times the cost only a decade ago.

For a second day, the proposal drew demonstrators to the University of California, Los Angeles. Some came from other UC campuses and stayed overnight in a tent city.

The demonstrators outside UCLA's Covel Commons building chanted, beat drums and waved signs urging "No fee hikes" and "Wanted: Leadership."

One student was arrested for obstructing an officer. She was cited and released, said UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton.

Campus police in helmets with face shields stood guard outside the conference building. The campus was also being monitored by police from several UC campuses and more than a dozen California Highway Patrol officers armed with beanbag-tossing shotguns.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/18/national/a131616S88.DTL

[rucky]

1. I have never, ever, ever heard a reason for these steep rises in tuition.

beyond the vague "costs are going up"

Who the hell is in control of these costs?

Kudos to the UC Students! (UCSF has had protests, too).

[gratuitous]

3. Lack of funding

State colleges and universities are subsidized out of the state's general fund or money earmarked for education. When revenues are down (and California's revenues are way down), the money for education has to be made up somewhere, and the students are the handiest, easiest target. But at least vehicle registration fees didn't go up like Gray Davis proposed. And no new taxes were imposed on Californians thanks to the minority Republicans in the lege.

[mike_c]

4. I can tell you several of the reasons fairly succinctly...

...and then I've got to rush to class, so I'll keep this brief.

Yes, the costs of running California's higher ed institutions go up every year, but that's not the reason for these fee increases, or the ones at the CSU which are exactly comparable-- 32% this year, probably another 30 percent next year (that's a guess, based on conversations I've had with university administrators and my faculty union representatives).

The problem is that student fees typically pay for only a small fraction of the cost of education. I think it was just under 20 percent at my CSU institution the last time I checked, which was before the current budget collapse. The remainder is paid to the university by the state legislature through appropriations for education. At my institution, we get about $5500 per full time student per semester from the state, and students paid about a bit more than a thousand dollars per semester until recently (it's going up every year now).

What has happened is that the state is not appropriating as much money because of the state budget shortfalls. This means that California institutions must either turn MANY students away because we can't afford to teach them, or they have to raise fees to transfer a greater proportion of the costs to students since the state isn't paying for them any longer. We're doing both-- at my CSU school, we're cutting our enrollment by rejecting qualified California residents and charging them 32% more to attend if they can get in.

It's the budget problem, and ultimately the economic meltdown that's mainly at fault.

on edit: just to be clear-- the real culprit here isn't the UC or CSU-- it's the state legislature and ultimately, Wall Street investment banks and the U.S. government that are at fault.

[GillesDeleuze]

5. surely, the collective salary of the board of regents

must continue to increase.

[mike_c]

8. yeah well-- probably....

eom

[Igel]

12. Absolutely.

Why, I'm fairly sure that they had a 25% increase in their salary just this year.

Of course, I could have said 250% increase and been just as accurate.

"No Regent shall receive salary or other compensation for services as a Regent nor shall any Regent other than the President of the University be eligible for appointment to any position in connection with the University for which a salary or other compensation is paid, provided, however, that the student Regent shall not be deemed ineligible for part-time compensated University employment. A Regent may be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred by reason of attendance at any meeting of the Board or a Committee thereof or in the performance of other official business of the Corporation."
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/bylaws/bl8.html

1.25 x $0 = $0. Just as 2.5 x $0 = $0.

There is, I believe, a principled exception to this. There is a UC student regent appointed each year, and I'm not not mistaken her (or his) fees are paid and receives a stipend. Then again, I easily could be mistaken; I was really just involved with government on my home campus and only wandered off campus (rarely) for UC campus presidents' meetings.

They all get reimbursed for travel, which I think is reasonably fair. UCOP probably keeps the lid on that to some extent, not that most poor students would consider their expenses to be subject to much of a "lid". (Now, if you want to see some truly spendy affairs, check out the campus and UC-wide development programs, esp. when the Alumni Assoc. gets involved. Whoa.)

[Dreamer Tatum]

23. Godfuckingdamnit, I am SICK of that stupid refrain.

If the Regents worked for FREE FOREVER, you still would barely scratch the surface of the problem. And if you say, "Well, it's a start," or, "it's the symbolism that matters," I say bullshit. Populist diatribe doesn't solve actual problems. Right now there is not enough money in California to pay for the state's obligations, by roughly $20B, EVERY YEAR, FOREVER. Unemployment in California is over 12%, house values are in the toilet, but still people have the idiotic idea that eliminating Prop 13 is a good idea. Is homelessness suddenly an admirable thing if it happened because of a tax lien rather than mortgage delinquency? As for the other tried-and-true fist shaker of soaking the rich, try to remember that the rich can LEAVE California if they want to. And they will, and they are.

It's a shitty problem that will involve serious cuts until the tax base returns. Period. Anyone who thinks there is a simple answer to the problem, or whose only interest in the matter is to assign blame, isn't truly interested in solving anything. It sucks that kids will have to pay more for higher education. It sucks that the stimulus was wasted on Wall Street. But even so, the stimulus money isn't FREE. It's BORROWED. That means that we in California will continue to have this problem well after the stimulus is spent.

[barb162]

11. "When you don't have any money, you don't have any money."

4th paragraph

[mbperrin]

2. Keep it up, students! If our future is not our priority, what is?

Maybe this can spread....

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. "Beanbag-tossing shotguns"

I like that phrase, describing a kinder, gentler gun. These things don't "toss" beanbags. There's enough force to break ribs, etc.

You could put an eye out.

[dhcave]

7. Campus Police = Private Security Force

Wonder if these guys would put conscience over the alternative, unemployment; should violence break out?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. Uh, no.

It's a state law enforcement agency.

[dhcave]

27. What I meant by private

is that their primary concern would be to protect the property and interests of the organization that employs them.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

28. Yes, that organization being the government of the state of California.

But if that's your definition of "private" then knock yourself out.

[villager]

9. The Ruling Elite: WTF were we thinking, giving peons access to education!?

hey you private cops! Show those children of worker spawn their place! Beanbag blasting commence!

[slackmaster]

10. There is no such thing as a "beanbag gun"

As stated in a 1950s sex manual my parents had when I was a kid, "We should not be ashamed to call by its proper name that which God was not ashamed to create."

Shotgun.

:evilgrin:

[sasquatch]

13. Group blocks regents from leaving UCLA building

Source: Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Some University of California regents who approved a student fee increase are trapped inside a UCLA building as protesters block the exits.

The demonstrators are being confronted Thursday by lines of baton-wielding campus police, California Highway Patrol officers and metal barriers.

University spokesman Phil Hampton says chains of demonstrators have linked arms to block the exits. One person inside the building says the regents have been held there for two hours. It is unclear how many remain inside.

Hampton says he can't confirm any injuries, although television footage shows one person was treated after being sprayed by an unknown substance.

Hundreds of protesters have marched at the campus for the past two days to oppose $2,500 in undergrad fee hikes through fall of next year.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091119/ap_on_re_us/us_california_university_fees

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBKBI7DOLHA
:patriot:

[katty]

14. this is a walk in the park compared to the 60's Berkeley protests

they'll live to collect their fees.

[sasquatch]

15. But it has me fired up, maybe this is a sign of good things to come

[annm4peace]

18. I'm glad to hear you are fired up

I'm way out here in MN, but went to CSU school and I have been trying to get friends and family back home to join in the protests or at least call into radio shows.

If all the people who benefited from the incredible public college education in CA, would join in the protests, they could really scare the crap out the Corporatists.

[jwirr]

16. Took me back a ways. I hope they get what they are demanding. nt

[orwell]

17. My wife teaches at a community college in CA...

...students have no idea how much education is subsidized by the state.

Students are screaming about paying a little more than a dollar an hour for class time.

My wife makes at least 50 an hour. That is before the cost of the facility and administration are added.

She has about 20 students in her class. A friend of hers makes close to $90 per hour. The numbers just don't add up.

We can't print money like the federal government.

There has to be a new educational model that arises out of all of this because the status quo is unsustainable.

By the way, they will no longer offer the class next semester due to the budget situation. This is a class that has been at that school for over 20 years.

[EFerrari]

19. A 30+% hike is not "a little more". n/t

[annm4peace]

20. this kid is not a threat and the asshole cop didn't need to use a weapon like a taser

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/UC-students-protest-fee-hike/ss/events/us/112009uclastudentpro#photoViewer=/091119/480/1a6370cda5da41b184a172ede32f8177

this is what the police who act like asshotes are doing now. They tazer people, and then the people file a lawsuit against the police dept (like they should), and it ends up costing tax payers.

What the cops used to do and should do is just arrest the person. They are not a threat, they are only committing civil disobeidence because they have exhausted all other non-violent means.

Please go through and "recommend the pictures" so we can give these activist some support.

[flamingdem]

21. I am glad someone is protesting, even if it isn't Berkeley in the 60s nt

[jimlup]

24. Please Please Please ...

Tell me that this is the beginning of people actually starting to fight back. A friend of mine recently said that a student rebellion would be the only way to change things. I disagreed thinking that students today are bought off and are not capable of seeing beyond their own. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong.

[Jester Messiah]

25. Why do students get the riot-weapons but the teabaggers don't? [nt]

[sasquatch]

26. Teabaggers are right wingers and therefore acceptable to American authoritarians