Later, the regents finance committee approved the fee increase on a 7-2 vote. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and regent Eddie Island voted no.
Then, about 80 students in the meeting room began chanting: "Regents, regents, don't you see, you're creating poverty." After warnings from campus police, 16 of the young people refused to leave the room, and officers handcuffed them and hustled them out. In at least one instance, a young man refused to go and was wrestled to the floor by several police officers.
UC officials later reported that the 16, including one who is not a UC student, were arrested on suspicion of disturbing a public meeting, a misdemeanor, and were released on their own recognizance. The one involved in the tussle also was cited for resisting arrest.
Things were calmer as the Cal State trustees met in their Long Beach office.
Board Chairwoman Roberta Achtenberg described the fee increases as "extremely painful" but added that the university had to "deal with the lot we have been dealt. We've done the best that we can."
She was among 15 trustees who voted to support the increase. Garamendi, trustee Melinda Guzman and student trustee Jennifer Reimer voted no.
Garamendi is an ex officio member of both governing boards and managed to attend parts of both meetings. At both, he proposed an alternative that would cap fees at and limit increases to the rate of inflation. Both his proposals failed.
Garamendi warned that the fee increases were another step toward what he said was the privatization of public higher education in California. "It is a vicious cycle," he said.
Cal State L.A. student Gabriela Serrato, 24, said her parents had struggled with their mortgage and rising gas costs, food bills and college fees. So they are urging her sister, Adriana, a high school junior, to consider a trade school instead of college. But the Cal State system was created to provide an affordable college education for low-income families like hers, she said.
"We are seeing that being chipped away," the Salinas Valley native said. Standing in front of three students who wore caps and gowns from their upcoming graduation as symbolic protests, she added, "There are students perhaps who will never get to wear a cap and gown due to the current budget situation."
As economic troubles take their toll on state coffers nationwide, many public universities are enacting similar fee hikes this year, according to Paul Lingenfelter, president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers organization, based in Boulder, Colo.
During recessions, enrollments go up as people find it harder to land jobs and tuition tends to rise. "There are tough trade-offs here," he said in an interview.
Last year, the average fee increase was about 6.6% at four-year public universities, and the expectation this year is for a range between 5% and 10%, according to the American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities.
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larry.gordon@latimes.com
seema.mehta@latimes.com
