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2009–2010 California college tuition hike protests
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March 2012
2009–2010 California college tuition hike protests Tuition hike protests at UC Davis in March of 2010 September 24, 2009 – March 4, 2010(2009 09 24 2010 03 05) California, United States Police response <700
The 2009–2010 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 2009 through March 2010. The size of the protests at each campus varied with over 4,000 people at UC Berkeley and 20 at UC Merced.Synapse - The UCSF student newspaper 1 October 2009 — UCSF Synapse Archive https://synapse.library.ucsf.edu/?a=d&d=ucsf20091001-01.2.3&e=-------en--20--1--txt------txIN-- 2022-06-14 synapse.library.ucsf.edu Protests were mostly made up of students, although faculty, school employees and others joined in the protests as well. Protestors were vocal against a tuition increase, pay cuts and other cutbacks following a budget deficit.https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/regents-club/content?oid=1854684 The regents club: Conflicts of interest are nothing new at the University of California, but they may be getting worse. Byrne Peter 2010-07-10 Sacramento News & Review 2020-06-20 en-UShttp://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942041,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20091124083246/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942041,00.html dead November 24, 2009 Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere Time November 27, 2009 November 21, 2009 The protests have been described as a precursor to the Occupy movement.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/thousands-gather-for-occupy-cal-protest_n_1086963.html Occupy Cal Berkeley Protest Draws Thousands, As Two Years Of Occupation Come Home The Huffington Post November 11, 2011 February 10, 2015http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/from-master-plan-to-no-plan-the-slow-death-of-public-higher-education From Master Plan to No Plan: The Slow Death of Public Higher Education February 10, 2015
Background
In 2003 Regent Blum, Regent Wachter and Regent Parsky consolidated control of UC's investment strategy, bypassing the university treasurer's in-house investment specialists, and hired private managers to handle a number of transactions. This action increased management costs and limited transparency, since these external managers were not subject to public record laws.
The amount of university money placed in private equity soon more than tripled, and by March 2009, the university's books carried a balance of $6.7 billion in 212 private equity partnerships, which consist primarily of risky leveraged buyout funds (LBOs)—more than 10 percent of the university investment fund total of $63 billion—and by spring of that year UC's private equity returns were running at a negative 20 percent.Treasurer's Annual Report 2009-2010 https://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/report/UCTreasurer_AnnualReport_2010.pdf University of California Likewise, after the financiers took control of the investment committee, the university's allocation to private real-estate deals increased from nearly zero to $4.5 billion in less than a decade, and by mid-2009, the private real-estate portfolio had lost an astonishing 40 percent of its value. This shift in investment strategy, which drained the university's endowment, had clear benefits for individuals on the board of regents.
By 2009, in a trend found across the nationZumeta William 2012-03-14 State Support of Higher Education: The Roller Coaster Plunges Downward Yet Again https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol1/iss1/4 Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy 1 1 1941-8043 to address budget shortfalls the State of California reduced its support to UC by $800 million, this along with the reduced returns on UC's investment portfolio the Board of Regents passed a tuition hike for, increasing tuition by 32%.O'Leary Kevin http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942041,00.html Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere - TIME Time 2009-11-21 2022-05-27Van Horn Brandi https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED508990 Tuition and Fees in the West, 2009-10. Policy Insights Prescott Brian 2010 Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education enHemelt Steven W. Marcotte Dave E. 2011 The Impact of Tuition Increases on Enrollment at Public Colleges and Universities http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0162373711415261 Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis en 33 4 435–457 10.3102/0162373711415261 28039252 0162-3737 subscription UC President and Regent Mark G. Yudof's response to the tuition increase was "When you have no money, you have no money," and Dr. Harry Powell, staff advisor to the Regents, said, “The legislators have told us, essentially, ‘The student is your A.T.M. They’re how you should balance the budget.’”.2009-12-28 Protest Studies http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/04/protest-studies 2022-06-14 The New Yorker en-US
University officials stated that the tuition increases were needed as they had already done all they could.http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/20/california.tuition.protests/index.html Protests of tuition increase continue on California campuses CNN November 27, 2009 November 21, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091129205321/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/20/california.tuition.protests/index.html November 29, 2009 live In the protests, students would point out that the state still seemed have quite a bit of money, with signs that read "California No. 1 in Prison Spending, yet #48 in Education."
The tuition hike was voted into effect by the regents on November 20, 2009,https://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/20/california.tuition.protests/ Protests of tuition increase continue on California campuses CNN.com 2022-05-27 and was a two-step increase with the first hike set to go into effect at the beginning of 2010, and the second going into effect in the fall semester of 2010.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/ucla-protests.html Students storm UCLA building to protest expected UC system fee increase LA Times November 27, 2009 November 19, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091122045358/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/ucla-protests.html November 22, 2009 live 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.https://abc30.com/archive/7125945/ UC Regents OKs Fee Increase, Students Protest Tuition Hikes (with video) ABC News KFSN-TV November 29, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20100215071446/http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news%2Feducation&id=7125945 February 15, 2010 live The protests have been compared to similar protests which occurred in the 1960s at California universities.https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/1210/p02s30-usgn.html Fee hikes bring student protests back to California universities The Christian Science Monitor December 10, 2009 December 12, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091214164135/http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/1210/p02s30-usgn.html December 14, 2009 live
Protests
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.https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/us/21tuition.html Students Protest Tuition Increases The New York Times November 29, 2009 Malia Wollan Tamar Lewin November 21, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20110430235116/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/us/21tuition.html April 30, 2011 livehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/24/california-university-berkeley-budget-protest University of California campuses erupt into protest The Guardian London November 29, 2009 September 24, 2009 Mary O'Hara https://web.archive.org/web/20100106064054/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/24/california-university-berkeley-budget-protest January 6, 2010 livehttp://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13584497 Potluck becomes protest at UC Santa Cruz; 3 pepper sprayed, 1 arrested Santa Cruz Sentinel November 29, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091120033356/http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13584497 November 20, 2009 dead
Major protests against the tuition hikes broke out on November 18, 2009, after the Regents' vote and continued in the following days. Students held sit-down strikes, blocking cars from entering the universities. Students also hijacked several university buildings, locking themselves inside.http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/19/california.tuition.protests/index.html University of California students protest 32 percent tuition increase CNN November 27, 2009 November 20, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091130041855/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/19/california.tuition.protests/index.html November 30, 2009 live Major protests broke out at UC Berkeley following the announcement of the tuition hikes in September 2009. In a series of actions on November 18–20, the UC Berkeley administration was seriously challenged by a series of militant actions on every major UC campus. On November 20 at UC Berkeley, 43 students locked themselves inside Wheeler Hall and held the building for 12 hours while thousands gathered outside for support and militant push-back against scores of riot police called in from several counties. One faculty member at UC Berkeley (Integrative Biology Professor Robert Dudley) was arrested while observing the protests. At UC Santa Cruz, over 100 students participated in a sit-in at the campus' Kerr Hall. They occupied the building for an entire three days before surrendering to police. No arrests were made.http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/11/22/california.student.protest/index.html#cnnSTCText Student occupation at UC Santa Cruz ends CNN November 27, 2009 November 22, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091125123603/http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/11/22/california.student.protest/index.html November 25, 2009 live Demonstrators occupied an administration building at San Francisco State University for over 23 hours and led to clashes with police until they were eventually forced out.http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/10/california.protest/ Protesters cleared out of San Francisco State building, university says CNN December 12, 2009 December 10, 2009 Although many professors remained complicit, some participated in the protests as well by not teaching in the days following the vote to raise tuition. Many professors and graduate students continued to teach classes but incorporated short "teach-ins" in the 5–10 minutes at the end of class, to highlight the proposed (and since then, enacted) tuition increases. Teach-ins often contrasted the cost to attend UC compared to comparable private institutions like MIT and Harvard, as well as the salaries of top administrators (Mark Yudof compared to Susan Hockfeld and Lawrence Summers).
At UC Davis, 51 students and 1 faculty member were arrested at the main administration building. In December 2009 at UC Berkeley, hundreds of students re-took Wheeler hall for a week to hold open workshops, classes, and teach-ins. The series of events, known as "Live Week," forged an open-access model of education run horizontally and self-governed by the community of students, faculty, and workers.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/uc-berkeley-protests.html The Los Angeles Times L.A. Now December 11, 2009 December 28, 2009 On December 11, 2009, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and the UC Berkeley administration used the information it obtained about a concert by Boots Riley organized by students and community as a pretext to clear the building. 66 students were arrested at 4 am without dispersal order and taken to Santa Rita Jail. The legitimacy of all these actions is seriously contested in a number of lawsuits against the administrations.
On March 4, 2010, protests at UC Davis were met with police brutality when they attempted to march upon the I-80 freeway.https://localwiki.org/davis/March_4%2C_2010_Public_Education_protest March 4, 2010 Public Education protest - Davis - LocalWiki
Violence Against Protestors
The UC administration responded with overwhelming police force to protests—police in riot gear from the university police departments, local county sheriff's offices, California Highway patrol and state police were regularly called out during campus protests.http://www.ktvu.com/news/21674608/detail.html Police Arrest Occupiers Of Wheeler Hall; 41 Arrested KTVU November 27, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091123194147/http://www.ktvu.com/news/21674608/detail.html November 23, 2009 dead mdy-all
On November 20, thousands of protesters gathered around Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley in support of 43 students, who occupied the building and successfully shut down the operations of the university for the day. While the occupiers were defending the space from the inside, police unleashed unwarranted violence on students on the outside. They used batons and rubber bullets, injuring the unarmed bodies of hundreds of peaceful protesters and sending some to the emergency room with broken bones.January 2012
At the annual Regents' meeting on November 17 the next year at UCSF, the Regents voted another 8% increase while hundreds of police in riot gear used tear gas and batons to fend off protesters from disrupting the meeting. In a particularly heated moment, UCSF Police Officer Jared Kemper drew his gun in front of dozens of students, threatening to shoot at them. January 2012
More than 700 students and several faculty members were arrested across campuses between late 2009 and the middle of 2011.January 2012
National Day of Action 2010
The campaign inspired a call for a nationwide day of action against tuition increases and budget cuts on March 4, 2010. Dozens of actions took place around the country, most of which were peaceful, although some were violent.http://www.salon.com/2010/03/04/us_university_cuts_protests/ Rowdy protesters block campuses amid funding rally March 5, 2010 February 10, 2015https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/march-4-day-of-action-map_n_484873.html March 4 Day Of Action: MAP The Huffington Post May 3, 2010 February 10, 2015 The largest actions took place in California, notably several large un-permitted marches around the San Francisco Bay Area that tied up traffic and sometimes led to conflict with police. The largest act of civil disobedience occurred when hundreds of protesters converged to blockade Interstate Highways 880 and 990 at Oakland during rush hour. 150 protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized.http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14511965 Oakland: Protesters arrested, traffic flowing again on Interstate 880 March 4, 2010 February 10, 2015 Protesters displayed a banner that read "Occupy everything," while shutting down the roadway for an hour, an action that has been described as a precursor to the Occupy movement.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the passage of state Proposition 30 in 2012, Governor Jerry Brown urged the trustees of UC and California State University to reconsider any further hikes with UC tuition remaining frozen for the next three years.Cal State and UC back off tuition hikes after Prop. 30 win https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-nov-14-la-me-calstate-tuition-20121114-story.html February 10, 2015 Los Angeles Times November 14, 2012
See also
2010 University of Puerto Rico strike
References
30em
External links
After the Fall: Communiqués from Occupied California
Reclaim UC
Those Who Use It
Reclamations Journal
Occupy Everything
Occupy California
expanded
Category:2009 in California
Category:2009 riots
California college tuition hike
Category:September 2009 in the United States
Category:October 2009 in the United States
Category:November 2009 in the United States
Category:December 2009 in the United States
Category:Student protests in California
Category:Great Recession in the United States
Category:Riots and protests at UC Berkeley