"Last fall, students across California mobilized against cuts to higher education to a degree not seen since the student movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
It started on Sept. 24, when thousands of University of California students and faculty skipped or canceled classes and held huge rallies decrying the $812 million that the state Legislature had cut from the UC budget. The activism escalated in advance of the UC Board of Regents' vote to increase student fees by 32 percent, and from Nov. 18 to 20, a three-day strike swept the UC system.
A diverse range of students joined together in a wide variety of actions – everything from writing letters to legislators to occupying buildings – and in the end the message made it through to Sacramento: We cannot balance the budget on the backs of students."
It started on Sept. 24, when thousands of University of California students and faculty skipped or canceled classes and held huge rallies decrying the $812 million that the state Legislature had cut from the UC budget. The activism escalated in advance of the UC Board of Regents' vote to increase student fees by 32 percent, and from Nov. 18 to 20, a three-day strike swept the UC system.
A diverse range of students joined together in a wide variety of actions – everything from writing letters to legislators to occupying buildings – and in the end the message made it through to Sacramento: We cannot balance the budget on the backs of students."
