UCLA students react to walkout
By Carolyn McGough
Sept. 24, 2009 10:52 p.m.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mischaracterized the tutorials still offered in Covel Commons. Wrting tutorials are no longer offered, but Covel Tutorials still provides free weekly group tutoring to undergraduates enrolled in select introductory courses in chemistry, life sciences, mathematics and physics.
Mike Fong’s parents aren’t helping him anymore.
“Basically, I went to UCLA for my undergraduate education, and I guess I kind of got used to my fee hikes because they happened every year,” said Fong, a first-year graduate student in the education department.
“It almost seemed normal,” he said, referring to the fee hikes.
But now that Fong is in graduate school, his parents are no longer bearing the burden of increasing tuition. Fong is responsible for signing in quarterly to URSA OnLine and paying his own fees.
“It’s finally starting to kick in,” he said. “This past year I lived at home, … so I’ve been preparing for it a little bit, but it’s not really until I paid that first BAR account a couple of weeks ago and heard about the possibility of fee increases in the future that it set in.”
Fong, along with other UC students, faces the burden of paying increased student fees. He arrived at Bruin Plaza, joining the group of students, faculty and workers consolidating there Thursday at noon.
Fong said at first, while students were still migrating to the central campus locale, he “wasn’t quite feeling it.” But more students ”“ approximately 400, according to university police ““ slowly joined the throng in marching to the chancellor’s office in Murphy Hall.
“I grabbed a sign from it and really started cheering with the rest of them,” Fong added.
But despite most students’ attempts to ask for negotiation and open communication at the walkout, support was not entirely universal.
Justin Tang, a third-year chemical engineering student, said he understands why pay cuts have to be made.
“I understand it’s going to suck, but the state of California messed up,” Tang said. “It’s not the (UC Board of) Regents’ fault.”
But students were protesting more than just disappearing funds that have taken away university amenities such as Night Powell and threatened departments’ budgets across campus.
In addition to the budget, many students showed up to the protest to remind the UC that the quality of education is also at risk given the financial woes currently afflicting UC schools.
Renee Hudson, an English graduate student who’s working to attain her doctorate, chose to walk out to “ensure the quality of education at UC and to fight against limited access to UC.”
She heard about the protest on Facebook and promptly decided that she would miss her lecture in order to attend.
Hudson referred to the closure of the writing tutorials at Covel Commons, explaining that cuts like those worry her the most. The success of the university system is compromised when money is drawn from programs, she said.
“If we continue to increase fees from students, you’re preventing them from going to a UC and to other schools; I think what’s going to happen is a lot of the top talent is going to be drawn away from California in addition to limiting access,” she explained.
But for most students, the hope is simply for communication with the administration.
“I don’t expect anything to be solved easily,” Fong said. “We just need to make sure that our voices are heard and they understand what they’re putting us through.”
With reports from Laura Belyavski, Bruin senior staff.
