5 Arrested During UC Protest At Capitol
Anger Rises Over Budget Cuts
POSTED: 8:59 am PST March 1, 2010
UPDATED: 6:38 pm PST March 1, 2010
UPDATED: 6:38 pm PST March 1, 2010
The arrests came as University of California students marched at the state Capitol to protest statewide education cuts.Five students were arrested at the state Capitol Monday on suspicion of assembling and protesting without a permit on state property, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Students said they're angry with tuition increases -- the cost of tuition has doubled since 2001 -- and cuts that have made it difficult to get into classes.
Among their demands is a $1 billion increase in funding for higher education in 2010-2011; they propose tax increases to pay for those increases.
"What we want to accomplish today is to urge the Legislature to pass those bills we need in a nonviolent way," said Chris Santos, a student from University of California, Los Angeles.
The CHP said the five students who were arrested wanted Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, to sign a document, but he wouldn't -- so the protesters did a sit-in.
On Friday, a tuition protest turned violent on the UC Berkeley campus. Police said at least 200 students set fires, smashed windows and tossed
