Getting What They Wanted (kind of)

I have been doing a little research on the system of the University of California and how they are raising tuition costs as a response to their recent budget cuts from the state. Common sense would tell you that students and parents of students would get a little angry that their school of their choice is raising the price for the education that the students wish to recieve. Not only does this increase effect the incoming freshman as well as transfers, but the current students that are actively enrolled in the system. This is happening in the entire system of the University of California. And, you know how many regional sites they have. 23 to be exact. This situation is also effecting the faculty and staff of the system. As student enrollment numbers dropped recently over 40,000, faculty members as well as staff have been forced to take furloughs in the school year. A furlough is a mandatory work day without pay. This sounds a little rediculous as a student but I cannot imagine how an employee of the University would feel in this situation. With all of this said and done, students of the University feel that they are in need to do something about the situation.
As far as student protests go, individuals are granted free speech and would fall under this title when protesting an event. These events are happening across the sites of the University system.
"Student sit-ins and poetry readings. It seems like the 1960s, but these are common scenes today on California campuses as students continue to protest large fee increases across the state's university system." These scenes are obviously being compared to the 1960's protests about political speech across America and rightly so. The question would be is to how far these students are willing to go to make what they feel is right a certain thing. This would be the situation of the rising tuition costs. The article that I have found was in the Ebsco Host section of the J.D. Williams Library.
"Over at the University of California, Berkeley, students have amassed in Wheeler Hall in what they are calling an "open occupation." They're sleeping in the building and holding forums and workshops, though they have yet to completely take it over as they did in November, right after university regents agreed to a 32 percent fee hike." "On Thursday morning police arrested 33 protestors at San Francisco State University after students had barricaded themselves inside a campus building. That school is part of the California State University system, which is raising undergraduate fees by about $1,000 a year, cutting enrollment by 40,000 students, and forcing employees to take furlough days across its 23 campuses."
Were they in the right? What were their goals?
In my opinion, I believe that acutally protesting the situation would be the right thing to do. Now, I don't know if I would have gone down the road of actually barracading myself into a building to attract the attention of the administrators of the University. The article goes on to say that the adminstrators were going to regret drawing attention to this incident but what something that needed to be done. As we talked in class, a protest will be successful when the superiors recognize the actions and actually take actions of their own. Well, they did in this case. Their actions were the calling of the police to get the students out of the building. The police came and obviously arrested the students for taking over the building. These students did what they felt was right and payed probably the ultimate price of getting arrested over the incident. I can't say that I would not have protested but would have thought enough about my actions to not get arrested and caused more stress to my parents and myself.