UC Protests Hit Central Valley

Read the statement produced by people occupying buildings at UC Santa Cruz. Info about the protests at UC Merced below. Also, there was a brief occupation of an administration building at UC Davis. Up the valley resistance!

Deep cuts, fee increases spur UC Merced professors, students to stage protest
By DANIELLE GAINES
Dgaines@mercedsun-star.com

Single strands of red ribbon hung like bloody streamers from T-shirts and button-downs across the UC Merced campus Thursday. Students scattered about the quad passing out fliers. "When you cut education, we all bleed," their handout read. -- Single strands of red ribbon hung like bloody streamers from T-shirts and button-downs across the UC Merced campus Thursday.

Some 25 to 30 UC Merced students, professors and other employees turned out Thursday during a systemwide University of California rally to protest deep budget cuts that have led to layoffs, furloughs, course reductions and higher fees.

"Even if our classes weren't canceled, I think we would have walked out anyhow," 21-year-old senior Alisen Boada said as she handed out fliers. "The legislature has let education funding fall to the wayside. The affordability of higher education here is what made California the economic and cultural powerhouse it has become."

Irving Pineda, a fellow political science major, agreed.

"Affordable education for everyone was supposed to be the goal of the UC system," he said.

Rallies, teach-ins and class walkouts were expected during the systemwide protest Thursday, which was the first day of classes at eight of UC's 10 campuses.

A union representing thousands of university technical employees is holding a one-day strike because they have been working without a contract for 18 months.

Protest organizers say they're angry about the university administration's handling of the budget crisis.

"Our union represents working class families, and we're also putting our kids through UC," said Brad Neily, a local representative from the University Professional and Technical Employees union. "So we cannot accept that this is the only solution to a structural funding issue that has gone on for decades."

Neily said he wished to compel university administration and state lawmakers to work in collaboration to redefine how state public university systems are funded.

"If you want to invest in a public education, put your money where your mouth is!" Neily shouted to a crowd of spectators during a noontime assembly.

Paola Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco, a graduate student and teaching assistant in World Heritage, spoke with fellow protesters before heading into the Classroom and Office Building to lead a class.

"I want to support the cause of public education because I think it is at risk," she said.

While Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco couldn't cancel her class because of an upcoming midterm, she planned to dedicate part of the freshman-level course's discussion time to the events of the day.

"It's really important that students understand what's going on," she said.

UC officials say the fee hikes and job cuts are needed as the university grapples with a massive budget shortfall caused by an unprecedented reduction in funding.

To address rising costs and a steep reduction in state funding, UC campuses have laid off hundreds of workers and forced most of their 180,000 employees to take furloughs and pay cuts of up to 10 percent.

Next month, the UC Board of Regents is expected to vote on reducing undergraduate enrollment and raising tuition by 32 percent for most students. That hike would follow a 9.3 percent fee hike approved in May.

More than 1,200 faculty members from all UC campuses signed a letter supporting the walkout.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.