UCSC students fight tuition hikes and police on campus, more protests planned

While the highway is back up and running the protest is far from over. A second group of protesters gathered outside the jail Tuesday evening where the original demonstrators are now being held.

Many drivers said their protests inconvenienced their commute. But protesters said taking some of their time, even for a few minutes, is the best way to highlight the problems they have with the university and police.

“I’m a UCSC student too and I’ve got somewhere to go,” UCSC student Robert Cavooris said. “We have to prevent business as usual because that’s the only way they will understand.”

Six protestors did just that, on Tuesday morning into the afternoon, preventing traffic on Highway 1 near the fishhook. For more than four hours, they locked arms through steel poles, strung together by trash cans filled with cement. They sat on the highway as more CHP officers, public works and fire crews showed up.

“It was no easy task getting them out,” said a crew member.

All the while, fellow protesters held vigil on Highway 17 before heading into Santa Cruz on Ocean Avenue, turning on to Water Street and finally stopping at the jail.

“We don’t want tuition hikes we don’t want a privatized university and to the non-university administration, we are trying to say no more violent policing,” Cavooris said.

In November the University of California Board of Regents outlined a proposed tuition increase including a 5 percent each year for the next five years. That could be as much as $612 more per student. It’s enough to prevent some students, like this one who didn’t want to be identified, from going to grad school.

“One of the things holding me back from getting my masters is financial,” said one anonymous student.

The move by UC regents was enough to provoke students to create havoc on the roads to fight the hikes. Students from Cabrillo College also participated to show solidarity. Wednesday’s protests are just a taste of what’s to come on Thursday when students have a planned walkout on campus.