WESTWOOD : Students Protest Fee Hikes at Regents Meeting
Sixty students waving signs and shouting “No fee hikes!” disrupted a UC Board of Regents meeting Thursday at UCLA to protest a 24% increase in their fees. At least four students tried to shove past university employees and security men toward the regents’ table, but they were pushed back.
The board immediately adjourned for lunch, walking past shouting students kept behind a hastily erected barricade. There were no injuries and no arrests, said UCLA spokeswoman Darlene Skeels.
Regents spokesman Ron Kolb said the state budget crisis forced the fee increase for this fall. “There were only two other options to raising fees,” he said. “Cut academic programs, which we’re hesitant to do, or limit enrollment, which we’re also hesitant to do.”
The fee increase approved in January was not on the board’s agenda and was discussed only briefly during an earlier talk about student financial aid.
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