(CNS) Posted Monday November 28, 2011– 10:30am
Hundreds of students angry with tuition fees that habe
tripled over 10 years, and irritated by the pepper-spraying of students by
University of California police, are expected to converge on the southern edge
of the UCLA campus Monday, as UC regents try again to hold a meeting.
Confrontations that may provoke arrests are planned at the all-day
regents teleconference meeting, which will be held in Westwood, San Francisco,
Modesto and Davis.
At UCLA, students plan to stage loud demonstrations under the banner
"Make Millionaires Pay" as the Board of Regents attempts to hold a meeting
for the second time this month. An earlier meeting, in San Francisco, was
cancelled amidst security concerns.
The UC system has been rocked by amateur video of UC Berkeley police
using batons against limp protestors, and UC Davis police calmly dousing
students sitting on a campus path with pepper spray.
That has galvanized students, says organizer Kyle Arnon, a sociology
doctoral student from Buffalo, N.Y. "Students are going to demand that the
regents change the agenda to reflect their concerns and we are not going to be
appeased if the only change is a longer public comment period," he told City
News Service
The regents have added 45 minutes to the normal 15-minute public comment
period at Monday's meeting to hear students and faculty comment about the
Davis and Berkeley incidents. .
Protests are planned at all four by students from the 10 UC campuses, 23
California State University schools, and maybe some community college students.
In the days since the pepper spray incident at Davis, police at the 10
UC campuses have been coordinating and reviewing policies on appropriate use of
force, and other strategies to deal with student protests. Prior to this fall,
police at some campuses reacted radically differently to others.
"I think they are going to be much more cautious in dealing with
students as a result of the Davis public relations disaster," Arnon said.
The Monday meeting is expected to attract overflow crowds to the James
West Alumni Center, at the south end of the UCLA campus in Westwood. Earlier in
November, UCLA students blocked the nearby intersection of Westwood and
Wilshire boulevards, which is reputedly the busiest intersection in the nation.
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