Wednesday University of California campus police handcuffed and removed about a dozen protesters who stopped and refused to get out of a Board of Regents of the University of California for the meeting where officials pushed a plan for steep increases in enrollment .
The demonstrators were protesting layoffs, licenses, rate increases and other measures taken by university officials to address the fiscal crisis of 10-campus system.
The regents left the meeting room on the campus of UC San Francisco, where more than 100 protesters stood and chanted "Whose University? Our university!" The Board members returned after police arrested the protesters on campus.
Most of the protesters were UC employees, but the people arrested are not currently employed by the university, according to organizer Sanjay Garla Union.
At the meeting, UC officials presented their plan to increase enrollment by more than 30 percent next year to help close a massive budget deficit caused by rising costs and cutbacks in state funding.
UC President Mark Yudof said the increases are necessary to maintain the place of the school among top research institutions in the nation.
"What we can do is surrender to the greatest enemy of the University of California, which is mediocrity," Yudof said. "The state has stopped construction of highways to higher education and have begun construction of toll roads."
The budget plan includes an increase of mid-year rates of 15 percent, followed by another increase of 15 percent next fall. Undergraduate fees for California residents would rise to $ 10,302, not including accommodation, food and campus fees that averaged $ 930.
Under the proposal, fees for graduate students and out of state residents would increase by similar amounts, and the university are charged additional fees for students in professional programs like engineering and business.
The proposed rate hikes, following a 9.3 percent increase approved in May, could generate an additional $ 378 million in revenue, of which one third would go to financial aid.
The Board of Regents is expected to vote on the plan in November.
Students said the fee increase would create economic hardship for themselves and their families.
"Quotas are bad for student access, affordability and diversity in our system," said Victor Sanchez, president of the University of California Student Association. "We have reached a point where the University of California can no longer call itself affordable."
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