Protestors hold rally against tuition hike

   For the first time since its inception, the Board of Regents voted last month to raise tuition another 32 percent, placing the original 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in jeopardy.

   The plan, designed 50 years ago, promised an affordable higher education for all California students, but the current fee increase will raise yearly tuition to over $10,300 for the average undergraduate.

   Hundreds rallied at the University of California, Los Angeles campus, urging the Board of Regents to reject the increase and emphasize the importance of education.

   The protest led to the arrests of 14 people, and has since spurred sit-ins at Universityof California, Berkeley and write-ins at University of California, Irvine and other universities.

   This is not the first round of protests among UC students this year.

   In September, students and faculty participated in a statewide walkout showing objection to furlough days, layoffs, and higher tuition.

   The California State University system is also feeling the pain of the budget cuts. The tuition for the average CSU student has increased to $4,800 a year.

   Hope is diminishing for Santa Ana College students who wish to transfer into the CSU or UC systems because of sharp fee increases as well as limits on enrollment of

new students.

   "I'm going to have to stay at SAC for a third year," said student Melanie Tran. "No one is really accepting applications and I don't have enough money to go to a university."

   Students continue to struggle, and according to the CSU Board of Trustees, 40,000 prospective applicants will be denied enrollment because there is not enough money in

the budget.

   Due to the financial crisis, 47,000 UC and CSU employees are facing 11 to 24 days a year without pay, meaning fewer days of education are being offered to students.   

   The 32 percent increase means that the cost for public education in California has nearly tripled from tuition of just under $4,000 a decade ago.

   "I'm on my own," said Gaby Arita, a senior at UCLA working two jobs to pay for school. "I can't ask my family. In this economy, no one is stable."

   UC officials have said this is a necessary action in order to fill a $1.2 billion gap in

the state's education budget.

   "This is a tax necessary because our political leaders have failed to adequately fund public higher ducation," said UC President Mark Yudof. "We do not have the money

to run the University

of California."