Update on regents final decision

The Board of Regents made their final decision on Nov. 29, to increase tuition by 32 percent much to student's dismay. According to the Los Angeles Times, of the 21 regents, only one student regent, Jesse Bernal, voted against the tuition spike. Alumni representative regent, Rolald Stovitz also was against the fee hikes in the professional graduate area. The regents assured that more financial aid would be given to students, but doesn't guarantee anything.

Students, faculty, and community did not take the news lightly. Some 100 protestors surrounded the parking garage at the UCLA campus, and wouldn't allow the regents to leave. Police had to clear a path for cars to leave. Demonstrators also blocked traffic in Westwood Village at UCLA. It wasn't just students and faculty from UCLA protesting, people from other campuses in California attended. Whether or not students from CSULB were there is unknown.

-Photo borrowed from Los Angeles Times

UCLA is fighting back!

UCLA protesters were making a stand against tuition hikes, and some people even got arrested during their two day rally that started Wednesday. How come CSULB supporters weren't locking themselves in Brotman Hall and getting hauled away in handcuffs? I actually don't know. What I do know is, despite the efforts of the 10 people at the protest on Tuesday outside the CSU Chancellor's office, and despite the 300 protesters at UCLA over the past two days, the Board of Regents still approved the fee increases. Today it is going to the full Board of Regents, which will make the final decision.

Update on the Board of Regents decision will be posted later.




Photo borrowed from Los Angeles Times

Protest outside CSU Chancellor's office

There were almost as many camera crew members as there were protesters at the small rally in downtown Long Beach today. The circle of organizers from Student's Fight Back only consisted of about 10 people, who were posted up in front of the CSU Chancellor's office building.

The group was carrying signs that read, "Fire CSU Trustees! Reverse Cuts/Hikes," and were loudly chanting, "Money for jobs and education. Not for banks and corporations."

The group was rallying against the budget cuts while inside, a the California State University Board of Trustees Finance Committee was proposing a $900 million request in state funding for higher education. If more state funding is not provided, students are worried that tuition, which has already gone up 30 percent for the 2009-10 fiscal year, will once again increase.

"There's a budget crisis going on that was caused by the banks because of the mortgage crisis, and the fact that, you know, the revenue in California, the number one source of it is property tax, so the banks failed and caused the budget crisis, which has been passed on by the state to the different systems: CSU, UC, and community colleges," said Dough Kauffman, one of the leaders of SFB, and also a student at CSULB. "When that was passed on to the CSU/UC systems, our leaders in those systems, the chancellors, the trustees, the regions, all those people should have been turning around at the state and demanding that they fund education, but instead they passed it onto us and voted to cut salaries of teachers by 10 percent, and fire workers on our campuses, and to increase our tuition."

The Chancellor will be going up to Sacramento next week to speak with politicians about more funding, according to Sid Garcia from ABC news.

Across the street were two blue eye witness news vans from ABC channel 7 news, and another team from KTLA channel 5 covering the story. Although there was only a small group at today's protest, the media has certainly taken an interests in their efforts to fight for higher education.