CSUN University News Clippings

Statewide protest set for UC campuses today

(September 24, 2009)

By Laurel Rosenhall

From Davis to San Diego, professors, students and workers at all 10 University of California campuses today are expected to stage protests, rallies and pickets to draw attention to the effect of state budget cuts on the university.

Professors are angry that they’ve been forbidden from taking their furloughs on teaching days. Workers are locked in labor negotiations with the university. And students are upset about a proposal to raise fees by 15 percent in the spring and another 15 percent in the fall.

All say California’s most prestigious university system is being ruined by the budget squeeze. UC cut its deficit by $813 million this summer through a combination of student fee increases, class and programs cuts and employee furloughs. Faculty argue that the pay cuts will drive the best professors to leave UC, while students fear the fee hikes will make the university inaccessible to the middle class.

In protest, some students and professors have planned to walk out of class today.

Just before 8 a.m. a handful of demonstrators picketed near various UC Davis campus entrances, a university spokewoman said.

The orderly protestors were spotted near the Mondavi Center, toward downtown Davis and near the Recreation Center.

More than 1,100 UC professors statewide have signed an online pledge to participate in the walkout — out of a faculty of about 19,400. That includes nearly 200 UC Davis professors out of roughly 2,000 faculty members.

About 1,000 UC Davis students — of the school’s 31,000 students — have joined a Facebook group supporting the student walkout.

For more information, see http://ucfacultywalkout.com/ and http://www.ucstudentwalkout.com/.

Publication: Sacramento Bee