http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/25/uc-protests-brats-gates/
By Ruben Navarrette
November 25, 2009
When the make-love-not-war generation finally got around to having
kids, they were so proud of their accomplishment that they fawned
over the little darlings and protectively adorned their minivans with
yellow caution signs that warned of precious cargo: "Baby on Board."
Now, after many years of being told they were special and entitled to
endless conveniences and a life without turmoil, the children are
grown up. And the University of California system, which has recently
endured student protests and arrests over a fee hike, has to contend
with the byproduct: brats at the gates.
The protests erupted after UC regents voted to increase tuition by 32
percent to help close a $535 million budget gap. University officials
say the fee increase will raise $505 million and prevent more cuts
into student services.
Hundreds of students have turned out at campuses throughout the
state. Fourteen students were arrested at UCLA, where the regents
were meeting. Forty-one were arrested at UC Berkeley. More than 50
students were arrested at UC Davis, near Sacramento. And about 70
occupied a university building at UC Santa Cruz for three days,
before finally evacuating when threatened with arrest. Officials say
some of those students may still be arrested and charged with
damaging university property.
The first phase of the fee increase, which takes effect in January,
will raise tuition for the system's more than 170,000 undergraduates
to $8,373. The second phase kicks in during fall 2010, raising
tuition to $10,302. Graduate students will also be required to pay
more. But university officials claim that students whose families
make less than $70,000 a year will have their tuition covered. UC
officials also insist that a third of the income from the
undergraduate fee hikes and half of the extra graduate fees would go
toward funding more financial aid for needy students.
Still, there's no denying that a 32 percent fee increase is quite a
shock, and that students have a right to be upset. After all, this
year, tuition and fees at four-year public universities around the
country increased an average of 6.5 percent from the previous school
year, according to the College Board.
Moreover, those of us who complain that the Twitter generation is
apathetic should be encouraged that students finally awoke and took
to the streets for any cause at all.
And so the protesters might actually have come out of this looking
good if they had never opened their mouths. But they did, and some
of what came out was ludicrous. The rest was downright offensive,
especially when students broke out in choruses of "We Shall Overcome."
UC Irvine freshman Suzanne Kordi told the regents in public comment:
"This isn't Wall Street, and the UC students are not here to bail you
out. We're here to get an education. If these fee increases are
approved, I will not be able to afford my education." UCLA law
student Kenia Acevedo added: "Fees are going to be so high that
people are not going to be able to attend this institution. It is a
devastation to what is supposed to be a public institution." And
Victor Sanchez, president of the UC Student Association, chimed in
with this gem: "These proposals are egregious, to say the very least.
The dreams of so many are being shattered as we speak."
That's what bothers me. These kids obviously can't take a punch. How
are they supposed to compete one day not just in the United States
but also around the globe? Life is full of disappointments,
challenges and setbacks. They had better get used to it. And yet
there is all this talk about how students will have to drop out of
school now that fees went up.
Have these young people never heard of a job? I don't suppose they
have since the human resource managers I know tell me that when they
look at resumes for 20-somethings, they usually find very little work
experience summer jobs, after-school jobs, etc. Twenty years ago,
when I was in college, I worked 20 hours a week in addition to going
to class. Twenty years before that, my father obtained his bachelor's
degree through night school while working a 40-hour week. Those
stories aren't unusual. Plenty of other Americans have their own versions.
If attending college is a priority, then you do what you have to do.
And if your dreams shatter so easily, then maybe they weren't that
durable to begin with. So the loss was negligible.
--
Navarrette can be reached at ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.
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