UCLA students end a day of protest over fee hikes

LA Times
November 19, 2009

After a day of protests over student fee hikes that roiled the UCLA campus, a final group of students who had taken over Campbell Hall left the building peacefully this evening.

There were about 25 students when the group dispersed shortly before 7 p.m. Students had been occupying the building since about 12:30 a.m. Students used a bike rack to block hallways and desks to block doors. Pizza boxes were strewn in the third-floor hallway.

"This is only the end of this moment," said Patricia Torres, 30, a first-year graduate student in the School of Urban Planning. "We are still dialoguing, but not stopping."

Earlier today, the UC Board of Regents approved a 32% increase in student fees.

The $2,500 fee hike will come in two steps by next fall. That would bring the basic UC education fees to about $10,300, plus about another $1,000 for campus-based charges, for a total that would be about triple the UC cost a decade ago. Room, board and books can add another $16,000.

UCLA students were joined by students from several other UC campuses who arrived in Westwood to join the demonstration against the fee hike.

UCLA officials had declared Campbell Hall closed for the day.

-- Amina Khan

Photo: Students, faculty members and other workers from UCLA and other University of California campuses protest the Board of Regents' approval of a 32% increase in undergraduate fees.
Photo: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times