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To close a $535 million budget gap, the University of California Board Of Regents approved a 32 percent fee hike and 2000 employee layoffs last Wednesday, drawing the protest of about 2600 demonstrators over two days at the UC-Los Angeles campus, and another 1000 students at UC-Berkeley. The fee hikes are expected to raise $505 million. 

14 students were arrested last Wednesday at UCLA when protestors broke through police barriers in an attempt to infiltrate the regents meeting. The police responded by using nightsticks and Taser guns on the crowd.

UCLA student Marc Barlis linked arms with a friend to prevent a van full of Regents from leaving campus.

“We were trying to prevent the regents from leaving campus in the van when they pushed me and Rusty,” Barlis said. “He fell and then I saw an officer Tase him.”

Students responded to the violence of Wednesday by turning out in droves on Thursday when an estimated 2000 protestors surrounded Covel Commons.

Students chanted “No cuts, no fees, education should be free,” and other slogans. Students then dispersed to different areas of campus, including various lecture halls and Bruin Plaza. The Daily Bruin, student newspaper at UCLA, wrote that no police violence was reported at UCLA on Thursday.

Protests at UC-Berkeley continued through Friday, with about 50 students occupying Wheeler Hall on campus, and several hundred outside the building. 41 students were arrested, and police used batons and fired rubber bullets at students outside the building.

A Camera-phone video posted on You Tube shows police using batons on protesters. Students created a Twitter account, @ucbprotest, to disseminate up-to-the-minute information, much of which disputed police’s claims that they were negotiating.

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