Santa Monica College Students Continue Protest As Chancellor Urges Dropping Of Two-Tier Plan

Students at Santa Monica College continue to protest on campus against tuition hikes in the three days following the pepper-spraying of demonstrators by campus police.

Hundreds of students at the community college rallied outside of the president's office demanding the school abandon a controversial two-tier pricing plan for classes.

The protesters issued written demands that the school put the issue through a campus-wide referendum and claimed they've pursued the controversial two-tier program in an undemocratic fashion. The Santa Monica Daily Press reports the District Planning and Advisory Council, which has student members, didn't see the two-tiered pricing proposal until eight days after the Board of Trustees voted to get the ball rolling.

The Santa Monica Board of Trustees will hold an emergency meeting Friday morning to discuss the two-tier funding program. California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott wants them to hold off on the plan, questioning the legality of it.

Under the proposal, students at Santa Monica would pay $180 per credit unit, an increase from $46 per unit, for in-demand courses. California State University is reportedly mulling its own version of this program.

California's community colleges have suffered $769 million in budget cuts from the state since 2009. At that point, the cost to take a class at Santa Monica College was only $26 per credit unit.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Comments

[schichi]

01:25 AM on 04/10/2012

Follow Jeff's advise. Peaceful protests are a First Amendment right last time I checked. We need to speak to power in a strategic way.

[AMERICABLESSGOD]

09:22 AM on 04/09/2012

Anyone who thinks the violence seen in Greece over their necessary austerity can't happen in America isn't paying attention.

[theschneider92]

12:04 AM on 04/09/2012

I wish I was paying 180 per a credit at my college

[Jeff Higley]

10:44 PM on 04/08/2012

So here’s what anyone who experienced or witnessed the offensive brutality of the SMC security crew should do: File FORMAL WRITTEN COMPLAINTS with the SMC Police Department. Not oral ones, FORMAL WRITTEN COMPLAINTS. Under California law, any such written complaints MUST RESULT IN AN INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATION which along with the written complaint stays in the officer’s performance file FOREVER. Additionally, the superiors of the officer must report back to each complainant with their findings. Naturally, the department will circle the wagons and say their officers were justified and well within department guidelines when they pepper-sprayed the students. Nonsense! Let them further de-legitimize themselves and a complacent/culpable SMC administration. It’s not like integrity is in large supply in those departments anyway.

The upside for such a collective effort will be a deluge of unwanted work by the police department where they’ll be forced to explain their behavior to every single person who complains. Also, the offending officers will have these complaints in their permanent files which could impact any future hiring by legitimate police departments. And no one should sign any agreement that findings or reports shared with them to answer the complaints are confidential. It should all be public record and shared widely.

[schichi]

01:22 AM on 04/10/2012

Jeff,
Thanks for a real strategy to make a protest matter. Your advise should be widely distributed as the students at SMC were abused. In my opinion, police response to the demonstrators was both excessive and uncalled for. Students have the right to peacefully organize against an administration whose decisions discriminate against those who are struggling to pay for classes and does not want student voices to be part of their decisions. Great work.

[Jeff Higley]

10:42 PM on 04/08/2012

It seems the SMC “police” (LOL) have continued their over-the-top suppression of student rights. No one should be surprised as the SMC administration has virtually never voiced much concern when their security goons brutalize students. I had many encounters with SMC campus security not to many years ago (when I was also a writer for the Corsair) before I transferred to UC Berkeley and SMC’s authorized gangsters ALWAYS came out on the wrong side of those confrontations. At least two of those offending security wannabes I filed FORMAL WRITTEN COMPLAINTS against were reluctantly admitted by their superiors, in a formal sit down with two SMC sergeants no less, to have violated my rights. (“College Disciplinarian” – an offensive, in loco parentis title if there ever was one - Dean Judith Penchansky asked to sit in on that meeting. I said no.) Like they cared, right? I still had lots of satisfaction that they had to answer to me. If I wasn’t so jacked up with fulltime work AND school, I would have taken it further. (And I would have outed political science professor Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, at the time SMC Faculty Senate President, for his own compromised and ethically-challenged positions as well.)

[Corpilot]

06:00 AM on 04/07/2012

It's ironic how the 1960s hippies became the 2012 administrators who assaulted students during a protest.

[Quis Custodiet]

02:17 PM on 04/06/2012

Well lets see...

If any of those fools were proponents of allowing for illegal aliens to attend state schools and receive financial aid to boot, they should be hosed down with pepper spray. Who would have thought that illegals would cram our state schools given the possibility of an easy legalization if the DREAM act passes; and therefore take up spots and funds originally intended for documented and citizen students.

Oh, but I forget. These are community college students. The collective IQ of all those gathered in that room doesn't break triple digits.

[Artamentous]

02:11 AM on 04/07/2012

Community college students are probably the smartest. Who wants to go into debt going to university for core classes that are WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper than University? Get those cores and transfer into university to get degree. Seems quite smart to me.

[Quis Custodiet]

03:29 PM on 04/07/2012

Considering that most CC classes are a fraction of the difficulty compared to real university courses; I am sure their 3.5's are going to hold up just great when tasked with actual intellectually challenging assignments.

[passthesewords]

03:55 AM on 04/07/2012

ignorance is bliss, the collective IQ statement is false and stupid. if your life depended on the accuracy of your statement you'd be dead.

[Quis Custodiet]

04:04 PM on 04/07/2012

Regrettably, I know what I am talking about. These guys are fools, their protesting at that time and place proves that. Perhaps if you knew anything about the state funding procedures and appeals' channels you would know that you are barking at the wind.