Occupy UC Davis Gets Pepper Sprayed

Students and faculty at UC Davis of California are calling for the resignation of their school Chancellor this week after a peaceful protest resulted in the use of pepper spray Friday.

The Rising Cost Of College Education

Students at UC Davis in California are mad. They are tired of their tuition fees going up. Back in August, University of California Regents said that they were going to give 78,000 faculty members a 3% raise for 2011 at a cost of $140 million. This, while the UC budget was cut $650 million by the State and while their tuition fees increased.

Back in 2009, UC regents decided to increase undergraduate tuition by 32% to $7,788. In 2012, tuition will be increased yet again by 8% to $12,192 per student - a 56% increase from 2009 levels.

Now you know why they pitched tents on campus for Occupy UC Davis.

Last Friday, drama unfolded. Protesters got pepper sprayed. Tents got torn down. People screamed at each other and some got sent to the hospital. Here are some choice videos I pulled off YouTube to get a feel of the situation.

Video: UC Davis Students Protests

This video shows what happened before Friday's pepper spraying incident. If anyone wants to characterize these kids as "hippies without a cause", they would be very wrong, These are college students demonstrating for a cause. Look closely. People of all ages. People of all colors. People of all cultures.

Video: Peaceful Demonstration

This is a video captured on Friday, the day when campus police approached students and pepper sprayed them. As you can see at 0:15, the students were standing with their hands linked together protesting. They did this immediately when confronted by campus police who warned them that they were going to be arrested for unlawful assembly.

At 1:42 physical confrontation begins. At 1:52 chants of "Shame On You" begin. According to other videos I've watched, this chant surfaced after police used pepper spray. At 2:33 students start to chant "Stop Beating Students" in reference to a prior incident when campus police shoved batons into several students breaking their ribs during a previous confrontation. Police then started ridding of tents and escorted students one by one off the grounds at 3:07.

Video: UC Davis Students Pepper Sprayed

UC Davis students who's arms are linked together and peacefully protesting, are pepper sprayed. After the spraying, protestors chant "Shame On You" and "You Can Go". Two members of campus police staff involved in the spraying incident, are now on administrative leave.

Video: UC Davis Chancellor Kotehi's Walk Of Shame

UC Davis students protesting in silence as Chancellor Linda Kotehi walks to her car. They called this her Walk of Shame. Definitely a very eery moment and one that shows the power of silence.

My Thoughts

Students attending the UC system have reason to protest. A 56% increase in 3 years is just unheard of. I can understand that the State of California is in a crap hole and that the UC system needs to retain professors. But one thing to consider is that everyone in this country is suffering from the financial meltdown of 2007. All must take their lumps. If professors leave the system, so what. Kids don't go to college because a certain professor is there. They go there to get their piece of paper and make life from it.

Knowing this, just what are we going to do to solve this problem of rising college education costs?

Let the college education system bankrupt itself and start over again. Let college universities compete for students as they do now but with no State funding. That way, they will run their own business, set their own tuition prices, and be responsible for their own affairs.

College education needs to be privatized and not be a burden of the State. We can't keep adding 3% year over year for salaries making tuition soar into the future. It just won't work and is bound to burst into a bubble.

Look at it this way, if college tuition fees continue to soar, why would low and middle income families want to be paying taxes to fund college education when they can't even afford it for their own kids.

Put another way: Why would you want your taxes going to help some rich kid go to college?

Besides, shouldn't America be taking a stance of nurturing young minds at the lowest cost possible to compete globally?

Think about it.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.