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Today, September 24^th at noon students from the University of California system will be walking out of their classes and demanding concrete action and solutions that will benefit the students, workers, and faculty who make up the University of California system.

On September 11, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle reported the UC President's proposal to raise student fees by over 30 percent by the fall of 2010. This unprecedented increase will bring student fees to over $10,000 annually for the first time ever, leading the University even further away from UC's original mandate to provide free public education to the students of California. Such measures are typical of the administration's approach to budget cuts. Instead of using surpluses from the university's revenue-generating units, such as its medical centers, or through steeper pay cuts to top-paid executives, the Office of the President has sought to fund the budget shortfall on the backs of students and low-paid workers through fee increases, layoffs, and furloughs.

The administration has used state cuts to advance a preexisting program of privatization and corporate streamlining. In doing so it has shown a heavy-handed disregard for shared governance with faculty, and has attempted to evade student reaction by making these decisions over the summer.

Let the UC administration that you stand behind the students!