Striking Back

Last Thursday, Californians bore witness to dozens of protests across cities and universities in The Golden State. These protests were part of a national day of action that was organized by groups advocating for the protection of education from injurious budget cuts. In California, the protests were especially justified; to make up for a state-wide deficit of over $20 billion, the public universities in California have sought to trim their own budgets by reducing library hours, furloughing staff, cutting teaching assistants—and, most dramatically, increasing tuition by 32 percent.

We support the aims of these campaigns—convincing legislators who are setting state-wide budgets to allot more money for education. Diverging from past protests that included tactics such as storming classrooms and occupying academic buildings, the latest round of action in California instead involved groups of protestors storming highways, causing traffic to shut down. The smart shift in focus from targeting university administrators to directing frustration at budget-setting lawmakers will ideally bring about change as quickly as possible.

Much criticism has been directed at students for having taken to the streets rather than staying in the classroom where, so it is said, a student who really cared about education would be. The academic sacrifices suffered to support these campaigns for the protection of higher education are indeed real, and students across the UC system remark they are suffering from "protest fatigue."

However, the long-term consequences if these campaigns fail to stop tuition hikes and the failure of the UC system to achieve its educational purpose will greatly outweigh any short-term fatigue. Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, has said that departure of faculty members is his biggest fear in the UC system’s current crisis. Yet the proposed tuition hike threatens to exclude huge numbers of students from the world-class education promised to them by the California Master Plan, drawn up 50 years ago to ensure affordable access to education. If classes are cancelled now as a result of protests, it is with the understanding that the failure of these campaigns could mean the total loss of a college education for many more students. Given the number of UC students who pay their way through school by taking on jobs and loans, in addition to the considerable financial sacrifices endured by many families, the rise in tuition literally means the difference between getting or not getting a degree.

The protests aim to stop the erosion of one of the pillars of accessible, public university education—affordability. Non-violent protests against this unfortunate reality—as all the protests have promised to be—are thus completely justified. As such, we support the protestors’ expansive, multi-dimensional approach and hope that the students, staff, faculty, and administrators of the UC schools will begin seeing their demands for the continued safety and strength of the public university system met.