Five students were arrested in Sacramento on Monday while lobbying Assemblyman Jim Nielsen to increase funding for California’s public higher education. The students, dubbed the “Nielsen Five,” were joined by 300 other students that protested outside the state capitol building.

The “Nielsen Five” occupied the republican representative’s office and refused to leave until the Assemblyman vowed to maintain funding to higher education and increase student diversity. Nielsen refused to meet with the students.

The five were led away in handcuffs.

“My hat's off to them," said State Senator Leland Yee, who wants to increase funding for the University of California. "Those are brave students."

They were cited with disrupting state business and demonstrating without a permit, and quickly released.

UC President Mark Yudof and several other administrators and representatives from the UC Student Association also pressed for more funding.
None of them received many firm commitments.
"The future of the state is in our own institution," said Linda Katehi, the Chancellor of UC Davis.

The UC representatives railed on the education cuts in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's most recent budget proposal. Among other things, the proposal called for an elimination of the Cal Grant, a state-funded student scholarship. The student representatives voiced concern over what they called the near-privatization of the UC system.

"We want our fees rolled back. We want to make education a right and not a privilege," said Victor Sanchez, the UC Student Association president.

Some students linked concerns about privatization to the recent surfacing of racial tensions on UC campuses, claiming the current funding situation did not allow for diverse student bodies.

"Only upper class, wealthy people can get into [California's] higher education, and that needs to change," said Sasha Muce, a senior at UC Santa Cruz.

Student representatives also spoke about the importance of the student voice, and pushed for California to spend more money on education than on prisons. Some legislators echoed those statements, urging students to support the taxing of oil and natural gas companies to fund education.

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