UC Students Protest Ahead of 32% Fee Hike

Angry students took to the streets yesterday to blast a proposed 32% fee hike for University of California schools. The Board of Regents is expected to finalize the increase today during a meeting at UCLA. It will hike tuition bills some $2,500. UC students will soon be paying $10,500 a year in tuition, triple a decade ago, on top of an estimated $16,000 in living and book costs.

Fees for graduate students at Berkeley's business school will hit $42,000, and UCLA law school costs will reach $40,000. "Fees are going to be so high that people are not going to be able to attend this institution," said a UCLA law student at the protest, where 14 were arrested. "It is a devastation to what is supposed to be a public institution." The university system is struggling with costs as California staggers under debt nearing $21 billion.
(More University of California stories.)