UC minority students protest budget cuts

Berkeley students staged a protest last weekend, but it didn’t involve tree hugging or anti-war demonstrations. Instead, it hit closer to home, highlighting an issue the UW is also struggling with: budget cuts.

A thousand students from Berkeley, Santa Barbara and various other UC campuses marched on Bruin Plaza at UCLA to protest school budget cuts.

The students had been attending the 20th annual Student of Color Conference.

Among the issues addressed in the conference were the proposed $30 million budget cut across UC campuses for the 2008-09 school year. As of yet, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has only cut $15 million, according to a UC press release.

UC Regents have recently threatened to reduce enrollment next year by 10,000 students in addition to enacting unprecedented hikes in tuition.

Protesters claimed this will affect minority students the most.

“The ongoing fee increases will directly affect historically underprivileged communities,” Victor Sanchez said in UCLA’s Daily Bruin. “Today’s rally will reinforce the already changing rhetoric that education should be a right and not a privilege.” Sanchez is a sociology and Latin American studies student at UC Santa Cruz and a member of the UC Student Association Board of Directors.

Sam Jung, a UCSD international studies and visual arts major, agreed.

“Since 2003, tuition has increased 150 percent,” Jung said. “The first groups that are going to be disadvantaged by this fee increase are going to be the minority groups. As a public university, our goal should be to provide equal education for everyone, not just the privileged.”

Arab-Israeli protest over maturity

In one of Israel’s more subtle controversies, Arab-Israeli activists are filing a suit against several Israeli universities to protest minimum age requirements they claim discriminate against their community and contribute to professional shortages in the Arab sector, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The current minimum age requirements for enrollment in departments such as social work, nursing and physical therapy insist students be at least 19 or 20.

Although universities maintain that the requirements ensure a proper maturity level for such positions, the protestors claim that they unfairly affect Arabs.

Unlike the majority of Israeli high school graduates, most Arab-Israelis don’t serve in the army upon graduation. Instead, they pursue education. Oftentimes, the age limits on social work and nursing compel students to study abroad or find work in other sectors, creating a shortage of Arabic-speakers in these fields.

“Arab children and Arab people who need these services don’t get them,” said Yousef Jarabeen, director for Dirasat: the Arab Center for Law and Policy. “It hinders their ability to develop, manage and succeed within society.”

Reach columnist Sara Grimes at news@dailyuw.com.