| US: Students march against funding cuts and fee hikes | |
In an unprecedented day of national protest across all sectors of education, the epicentre proved to be Berkeley - where the seeds of student activism were sown more than 40 years ago, writes Jack Stripling for Inside Higher Ed. With the smell of burning sage and the occasional hint of weed in the air, an impassioned throng of students from the University of California's Berkeley campus marched to protest budget cuts and tuition hikes they say are crippling one of the nation's premier public institutions. While the five-mile trek to Oakland proved largely peaceful, police arrested as many as 200 protesters once they reached freeways and tried to block them. The arrests mark the continuation of a what many describe as a troubling trend at the University of California, which has seen recent allegations of police brutality, racially motivated discord and an activist movement that at times appears intent on provoking law enforcement. Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site Student activists in California and elsewhere took to the streets on Thursday in a national day of protest against rising fees and dwindling services in public higher education, drawing attention to a wave of tuition hikes, budget cuts and furloughs at colleges and universities across the country, write Jenna Johnson and Daniel de Vise for The Washington Post. Organisers said they seek to dramatise mounting frustration as the recession forces deep cuts in higher education budgets, especially in California, whose higher education system is both the largest in the nation and facing the deepest cuts. Colleges across the nation have raised tuition, cut positions and absorbed funding cuts, but not to the extent as in California. Full report on The Washington Post site Printable version Email to a friend Comment on this article |
