March 4 Protests: California College Students Rise Up, Lead Movement

March 4 protests are planned nationwide on this "Day of Action," but all eyes may be on California today, March 4, 2010, where the movement started and tensions have been high.

Some California students say they couldn't wait for this day to come, and they will voice their dissatisfaction with the public college system due to proposed tuition hikes, budget cuts and a series of racist events.

HuffPost College has followed developments in California closely, and we've set up a "California Crisis Live" Twitter page to follow the action today in real-time. You can also follow the #march4 hashtag today on Twitter.

The Daily Californian reports that thousands will march today in support of public education, but the majority of students will likely not participate.

Some parents and teachers are also expected to take part in the March 4 protests in California and throughout the country.

Recently protests have occurred on several California campuses including Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis, and March 4 has been designated as a Student Day Of Action to protest higher education budget cuts.

Keep checking back at HuffPost College today for all the latest on developments in California and elsewhere related to the March 4 protests.

Comments

[Erik G]

02:03 PM on 03/04/2010

I'd really like to see more focus on protests happening in the CSU system and not focus so much on the UCs. We were hard hit too and although we don't come out in nearly as large numbers, there's been little to no attention given to our efforts. This isn't a problem just with the UC system, this is a problem with public education throughout all of California.

[raptors23]

01:47 PM on 03/04/2010

beebster,
The more gov. loans, the higher tuition will go. Period. Free-market solutions! Education should be totally inexpensive with the # of kids in college (economies of scale) and the advances in on-line education. This is clearly the work of the Federal Gov. and Keynesian Economic Liberals who will lead us to the total destruction of our Monetary System. My generation will undue the work of the 1960s Liberals.

[MoeB]

03:28 PM on 03/04/2010

How, exactly, does that work? Will tuition go down if people use PRIVATE loans?

[raptors23]

03:53 PM on 03/04/2010

Large Private Loans for College for the most part do not exist. No one would loan a significant amount of money to a kid to go to college. First someone who is 18 y.o. has no credit history or proof that one day they will be able to pay back the loan. That is why in the 1960s and 1970s tuition was low enough that you could go to college without taking out loans. Once the Federal Gov. got involved in co-signing student loans, well now it made sense to loan money since if the kid couldn't pay it back then the Gov. would. Now students can borrow 50,000.00$/year+. That removes all free-market forces from higher education. Now there are too many students with too much money bidding up tuition costs. The schools know this and that's why they just grow and grow and raise tuition's every year. Plus, this ridiculous amount of kids with college degrees has made a B.A. worthless, now you need a Masters, or a JD, or a PHD to stand out in the work force. How much will I have to borrow to get a PHD?

[beebster]

01:39 PM on 03/04/2010

President Obama has a plan that will take the money loaned out of the banks hands and make it easier and less expensive for education not only at colleges but also for vocational tech schools!

[raptors23]

01:20 PM on 03/04/2010

I am a student at UCLA and I can attest that MOST students are not protesting, 90% could care less. Why? Because, whatever our tuition is raised by our financial aid will be increased (they just take it from one packet and put it in another). The real problem is the U.C.'s budget, it MUST be cut drastically. I challenge anyone to walk around UCLA, canvass the buildings on campus and make some observations: "Which rooms are classrooms or labs (where people are actually learning), which are teacher's offices, and which are administration. You will see that about 20% are classrooms or labs, 30% are teacher's and TA's offices, and 50% are administration! Literally hundreds of huge rooms filled with bureaucrats and worthless councilors doing the most ridiculous jobs. I walk into these places and there's 20 employees in each office all making 60-100K a year, waiting for their 4 weeks paid vacation, and their gov. backed pension. Schools know that they can spend any amount they want and the Federal Gov. will just increase Loan amounts. The only beneficiary of course is the bloated administration (that all those brainwashed kids are out supporting today) and the loser is all us kids who graduate owing the equivalent of a mortgage with no home only to enter a job market that the Gov. is also killing. Wake up! Peter Schiff for Senate! schiffforsenate.com

[cmpstrca]

08:01 PM on 03/04/2010

There is a great deal of truth here. I know that on some UC campuses the staff to student ratio is almost one to one. That is an incredible number and points to tremendous inefficiencies that have accumulated over the years in the system. I find it ironic that some of the campuses have outstanding MBA probrams and yet the very management principles that are espoused in the class rooms are not applied on the campus. If the system is examined closely, I think one would find extensive duplication and overlap in administrative services and very little accountability. I think there is little doubt that a great deal of money could be saved if the administrative services were reviewed and streamlined throughout the system.

That said, some of the behavior today during the protest at UC Davis, for example, is rediculous. Why pull fire alarms, why disrupt other students mid-terms? Ultimately, that is not productive and it is costs more money in a system already suffering shortfalls. I think the students should challenge themselves to protest in a more effective manner than that.

[Dan Bruso]

12:54 PM on 03/04/2010

It's a shame that these protesters aren't as orderly and peaceful as the teabaggers

[judgejay]

12:35 PM on 03/04/2010

Your state is broken do to the liberal policies you have enacted. Pay higher local and state taxes to dig your self out of the hole your in or quit whining. Typical I want it all but someone else should pay for it.

[MoeB]

03:29 PM on 03/04/2010

Hmmm...I'd agree if it were 40-70+ year olds who were complaining...but sorry, it is NOT the fault of 18-21 year olds that the state, and country for that matter, are in the mess they're in...so YES, someone else SHOULD pay for it.