SAN FRANCISCO—Despite fervent student protest, the University of California Board of Regents is expected to approve up to a 28 percent tuition hike over the next five years.
Of the Regents, only California Governor Jerry Brown and student Regent Sadia Saifudden have publicly opposed the plan to increase tuition across all UC campuses.
The proposed increase has been reported to be as low as five percent. Such an increase would require students to pay more than $15,000 by 2019. Depending upon state funding of the UC system, the increase could potentially be less than five percent.
UC officials have argued the increase will attract more in-state students, and is necessary to counterbalance higher pensions and salary costs.
Student protests took place on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday, at the University of California-San Francisco, the site of the board vote, tensions reached a violent pitch, as protestors reportedly tousled with police in an attempt to block the Regents from entering the meeting.
A group of of students went as far as rushing, and subsequently shattering a locked glass door. A 21-year-old UC Berkley student as arrested and booked on two counts of vandalism and inciting a riot.
The committee voted 7-2 in favor of the tuition hike.
