In response to the UC Board of Regents’ convening on campus this week, students and legislators have been vocal about their opposition to many of the regents’ policies and potential decisions during the course of the three-day meeting.
The protests began early in the morning with students from many of the University of California campuses and members of the University of California Students Association wearing uniforms and carrying picket signs outside of Covel Commons.
Students walked into the building holding signs that read “Freeze our Fees,” and chanted “Whose university? Our university.” They expressed frustration that another year of fee increases could push some students out of the UC.
Melinda Nguyen, a first-year business economics student, said she is concerned that increased higher education costs might place an undue burden on undergraduate students who will be most affected by a 7.5 percent fee increase.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “It seems like (the regents) are going to help graduates more than they’re going to help undergraduates.”
Once the meeting had begun, the students used the 20-minute public comment period to share personal stories about the impact of higher fees and repeatedly urged the regents to freeze fees at their current level.
By the time the regents broke for lunch, most of the students had left, but State Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco, joined by State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino of Orange County, and members of AFSCME 3299, the union that represents a large portion of UC workers, arrived for a press conference outside of Covel Commons.
Yee said he was disappointed by the regents’ decisions to increase the salaries of several high-level administrators.
Though the regents had initially proposed a 15 percent increase in executive compensation during their closed session meetings on Tuesday, the regents announced that they had cut the increase back to 5 percent the next day.
But, while the regents deferred their decision about increasing chancellors’ salaries, the board did vote to increase UC Provost and Chief Operating Officer Wyatt Rory Hume and Vice President Anne Broome’s salaries by approximately 17 percent.
Yee said he felt the regents were attempting to usher in salary increases before legislation to increase transparency in executive compensation policies takes effect.
“Here we are in a situation where the lowest-paid workers continue to have to live from paycheck to paycheck and the UC administration has the audacity to suggest that we give 15 percent (salary) increases for the administrators,” he said.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi held a press conference phone call to advocate against potential fee increases.
During the regents meeting, Garamendi proposed a motion to remove any mention of student fee increases from the UC budget proposal.
As a follow-up, Garamendi expressed frustration during the phone conference that the motion failed to pass, saying that he believes letting state legislators know that the university will raise student fees if the state fails to provide adequate funding will give them incentive to deny the regents the kind of money they need.
“I do know that if you throw the towel in before you even get in the ring, you’re going to lose,” he said.