With the protesters from the previous day gone, the overall atmosphere was much calmer when the University of California Board of Regents met Thursday to finalize a vote to increase student fees.
The regents voted in favor of raising student fees by 7.4 percent for the 2008-2009 school year.
Though the regents discussed the issue at length Wednesday, the full board’s decision came Thursday after a quick vote.
The resolution had caused much protest Wednesday when many students protested the fee increase. Of those involved, 16 student protesters were arrested and charged with disrupting a public meeting and now face misdemeanor charges. One student from UC Santa Barbara faces an additional misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.
Anna Sterling, a UCLA third-year political science and women’s studies student who was among those arrested, said the possibility of arrest had been discussed beforehand. She said that, while some students may have acted on impulse, she felt that confronting the police was her only choice given the circumstances.
“That was our only option that the system allowed for us. At the least we could create heightened visibility though our protesting and our arrest,” she said.
Sterling said the issue was something she would continue to advocate.
“Being a woman of color, this is definitely an issue that hits close to home. It’s very intimate to me. … All of the student-fee increases affected the marginalized communities the most,” she said.
The meeting also included the appointment of Timothy P. White, the current president of the University of Idaho, as UC Riverside’s chancellor.
Among the various issues discussed were the results of a study group on university diversity, which found that the unequal educational opportunities for students led to a lack of diversity in the university. Faculty representative Michael Brown led the presentation, which highlighted the obstacles that underrepresented minorities face when trying to apply to UC.
The presentation pinpointed issues such as the lack of A-G requirements, which must be fulfilled for an applicant to qualify for an admission to UC, at all high schools. The UC study found that 20 percent of high schools in California contributed almost 50 percent of the students offered admission in 2005.
“K-12 is broken, but it is not broken for everybody,” Brown said of the educational opportunities available in only certain high schools.
The findings sparked passionate dialogue on the issue, with many regents asking for the board to take action on the issue as soon as possible; Regent Eddie Island was especially moved by the issue.
The lack of diversity within the student population has been discussed at length in previous meetings.
“The university has for too long stood by and washed its hands of this problem,” Island said.
Many regents echoed Island’s sentiments, arguing that the university had failed to make any improvements in having more diversity on its campuses.
“I’d give us a flat F for failure,” Regent Frederick Ruiz said.
While many agreed on the need for change, some argued that nothing would be achieved without concrete plans. Regent Sherry Lansing said she was in favor of set goals and reaching out to the high schools to ensure that they all are able to teach courses that meet the A-G requirements. She said such a move would help diversify the student application pool.
“I don’t want to lower the standards, I want to make sure the standards are achieved,” Lansing said.