UC Budget Protests
On Thursday, UC Berkeley students and employees protested rising student fees, cuts in the number of classes offered, and the state’s plan to cut $3 billion from education funding—a familiar theme on California college campuses over the past year.
As president of the University of California, Mark Yudof has been the target of protests over budget cuts and rising student fees. But in Sacramento, Yudof is applying some pressure of his own. Together with university regents, chancellors, and students, he is asking legislators to direct more money toward higher education.
On March 4, hundreds of protesters marched from Berkeley to Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland to rally with students and educators from across the region. After the rally, a group of some 150 protesters marched onto the I-880 freeway, shut down traffic and were arrested by police. Some reporters got the story — but four of them, including Oakland North correspondent Jake Schoneker, got arrested. Schoneker shares his account of the day, in pictures and words.
Protests against budget cuts to education are attracting student activists from around the globe. Ten Japanese students were among those that attended the March 4 protests.
While nearly 2,000 people were protesting cuts to higher and K-12 education on the Oakland streets, most Oakland Tech students were in class. Those that stayed – including one particular Spanish class – got a lesson about California’s funding crisis.
Students at Oakland Technical High School participated in a “disaster drill” to draw attention to the state of emergency of education as part of the March 4th Day of Action
From Berkeley to the 880 Freeway, students and other community members joined a march to fight for public education and against the state budget cuts.
With more than a thousand students, faculty members and other education advocates rallying outside the state capitol, Democrats seized on the opportunity to voice their support for revenue-raising measures, including the proposed oil extraction tax.
A close up look at many of the memorable images from the March 4 protest that stretched from the UC Berkeley campus to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland.