UPDATE, NOV. 17, 9:10 A.M.: The final tally, according to California State University police that responded to Wednesday's chaos at the Chancellor's office in Long Beach: 10 people were arrested, but it is unclear if they were students or activists and labor union members bused in to protest the 9 percent tuition hike that was approved.
Two cops were injured, CSU police say.
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Things turned ugly after the public comments period ended but foes of the hike kept speaking and would not disperse, CSU police say. About two dozen protesters, some of whom held signs stating “Make banks pay,” chanted, “We are the 99 percent.”
Trustees were shuttled into a smaller room where they voted 9-6 for the increase in closed session. Among those critical of the vote was dissenting board member Gavin Newsom, California's lieutenant governor, who pleaded with his fellow panelists to hold a public vote at December's meeting. Cal State officials countered that the secret vote was legal and binding, however.
UPDATE, NOV. 16, 2:18 P.M.: Two students were reportedly
pepper-sprayed and two police officers were injured during this
morning's protest at the California State University Chancellor's office
in Long Beach.
Trustees waited until protesters were cleared out
of the room before going into closed session to approve the 9 percent
tuition hike for next school year, reports the Daily 49er.
The student newspaper posted video of the fracas on Facebook.
UPDATE, NOV. 16, 2:09 P.M.: Things reportedly got violent this morning at the California State University Chancellor's office in Long Beach, where the system's Board of Trustees met to approve a 9 percent tuition hike for 2012-2013.
It began when 200 angry students vied for 100 available seats in the audience, UC Rebel Radio reports.
The site includes pictures from the fracas that included at least three arrests and a window being broken by
riot police trying to deny entry to tuition payers and activists.
“Students were beaten,” reports the accompanying post
ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 16, 9:55 A.M.: You can imagine the pride that swept over local officials years ago when it was revealed the California State University system chancellor's office would be located in Long Beach. What they probably were not thinking about at the time was how that office on Golden Shore would become the focal point for anger directed at the CSU, as proven by all the protests that followed there over the years.
Take today's over a proposed 9 percent tuition hike–please!
Students and activists backed by ReFund
California, a coalition of groups opposing the management tactics of
large banks, plan to protest meetings today at the CSU chancellor's office before marching along Ocean Boulevard to the Wells Fargo bank
building, reports the Long Beach Press Telegram.
The California State University Board of Trustees' Finance Committee started meeting at 8:30 this morning. The full Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at 10:15 a.m.
The main topic, of course, is the hike of tuition by $498 for the 2012-13 school year, the ninth CSU increase in nine years. After a 12 percent jump for the current school year, annual undergrad tuition reached $5,472. With the new proposed increase, it up rise to $5,970 for 2012-13. Add in campus fees, and the total bite surpasses $7,000 for the full year.
Officials say the jumps have been necessary as state funding has been slashed by $650 million in recent years and another $100 million cut is expected next month. However, if the board gets a requested $138 million more in funding from our broke state, the latest tuition hike will be unnecessary, the CSU says.
Students can count one CSU board member as being on their side. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has said he will oppose the proposed tuition hike.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.