Student frustration fuels march on UCD campus
Echoing student protests that have rocked the UC Davis campus in recent years, students and faculty gathered Thursday on the Quad to oppose proposed tuition increases and stand in solidarity with the Occupy protests around the country.
“I’m here today to help put a stop to both the privatization of our public education system and the general climate of austerity in this country,” said Andrew Higgins, a graduate student in history.
“Working people are being forced to pay for the sins of the wealthy, whether we’re getting kicked out of our homes or kicked out of school.”
About 100 protesters gathered, some giving speeches via megaphone before leading a sign-waving march around the Quad, through lecture halls and into the Memorial Union.
Many of the slogans and tactics were reminiscent of earlier public actions against tuition hikes — “Chop from the top,” “Whose University? Our University!” — but protesters also borrowed rhetoric from the growing Occupy movement: chants like “We are the 99 percent” and “Occupy Everything.”
“My parents worked hard for their education and they assumed that I would have it easier, but every year bills get harder to pay,” said Lyla Rayyan, a senior majoring in international relations and communications.
“It’s disappointing and frustrating,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford graduate school, and everything I want to do won’t make enough money for a comfortable life.”
Rayyan is studying to become a journalist or a social worker, and just returned from a trip to New York, where she stood with the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park.
“Going to Occupy Wall Street was really empowering,” Rayyan said. “There was such a great diversity of people organizing to take care of each other. … I’m happy to see their movement spread to Davis.”
Easily the biggest target for student outrage was a plan proposed in September by the University of California Board of Regents that would increase tuition by 8 to 16 percent each year from 2012 to 2016, depending on support from the state budget.
Regents voted not to implement the plan but that did nothing to quell vocal student opposition. The plan, summarized as an “81 percent tuition increase” drew roars of disapproval at every mention Thursday.
In real terms, students paid $5,041 in tuition for this fall quarter, which is 15.6 percent more than last fall quarter.
Some protesters made an effort to change the tone of the march to improve the popular image of student actions.
“I want to see these protests advance, so that people won’t think ‘oh they’re protesting again, how stupid,’ ” said Fatima Saveh, a senior international relations major. “People have a negative connotation of protesters pulling fire alarms and wreaking havoc for no reason, and we’re trying to change that.”
However, she thinks “a little chaos” is necessary to wake people up.
Saveh considers herself lucky; her scholarships and financial aid have so far kept her out of debt. But that’s starting to grow thin, she said.
“My financial aid was cut in half last year, and I’ve had to take on another job just to cover rent,” she said.
The scope of Thursday’s protest was perhaps broader than that of recent marches. For many, the goals of shrinking tuition costs and democratizing the Board of Regents were compatible with ending banking influence on politics and even changing U.S. foreign policy.
“The time is ripe for mobilizing to change the way things are done,” said Eran Zenik, a graduate student in the history department. “We have to change the paradigm and unveil the lies and misrepresentations we’ve been fed.”
Zenik studied at the University of Tel Aviv before coming to Davis, and since last year has been an officer in the United Auto Workers Local 2865, a union of graduate students, TAs and research assistants. His background in organizing informed his view of the student protest.
“One of the great things about this movement is that it’s not structured; it’s flexible and can’t be boxed,” he said. “Structure can be detrimental to a movement. Often it’s divisive and egos start getting in the way.”
For Zenik, the protest was primarily about changing the way people think. “People need to see that a better world is there for the taking, as long as everyone wants it. That’s what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, and that’s what can happen here.”
The marchers wound their way through campus for about an hour until assembling in Central Park to meet up with the Occupy Davis protest.
Occupy Davis is a group of Davis residents who have had a presence in Central Park since Oct. 15 in an act of political protest. Participants will meet at 6 p.m. Saturday for their next general assembly.
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Posted by Cheyenne Cary
on Oct 27 2011.
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If these students really cared about their fellow students, then they would have kept their protest to the quad and other open areas. I am disgusted that they decided to interfere with classes. As a taxpayer I paid for those classes to be held and they prevented that from occurring. As afar as the privatization of public universities, President Obama abolished all private loans. You can only receive a student loan through the federal government. Protest all you want, but do not interfere with someone else’s education.
Tuition hikes are politicians way of thankig their biggest financial supporters, the unions, Raises and generous public retirement for adminisistrators and tenured faculty that you students will never see in your life, That’s the irony of faculty drumming up discontent—why not offer a faculty pay cut so fees stay low? Will never happen. My advice: study, graduate and get a job in the real world,