"“Do you support Democratizing Education?” Various forms of this phrase were scrawled across the ground in chalk and on posters along Ring Road early last Monday morning on the first day of winter quarter. By noon, some of the posters had disappeared and footsteps had carried away most of the chalk. But by then this didn’t matter because the rally had already begun. Students from a disenchanted student body vocalized this message of frustration. Diverse student groups joined together under the single cause of “de-privatizing” the public university. The rally expressed student outrage against the recent 32 percent fee increase, violations of campus workers’ rights, growing layoffs, furloughs and cuts in services that are leaving students paying more for substantially less. The rally also called on the UCI campus community to participate in the upcoming “Open Forum” with Chancellor Drake on Wednesday January 13 from 5-6 p.m. in HIB 100."
