Responding to Activists

Jimmy Nguyen
ASA 2 Section A01
Response #4 - The Tale of Two Campuses

Before I attended UC Davis, I was aware of the Occupy movement that was occurring at UC campuses across the state. With the inflation of our economy, it was not a surprise that school funding would be affected and tuition would increase. It was even less of a surprise that thousands of students were infuriated by this increase and began fighting for their education rights. What happened at UC Davis where students were pepper sprayed became a widely talked about subject among my peers and this was when we started to become thinking like activists and about our rights in society. After reading the article about how UC Davis and UC Berkeley responded to the Occupy movement, I was quite surprise. I didn't know that Berkeley decided to be passive about the whole situation and even suggest a solution for middle income families. Many people believe that Davis responded to the protest unjustly and unfairly -- however, I concur. It's one thing if students are a distraction to the university, but causing damage to the school is disrespectful and uncalled for. If we are fighting for our tuition, why are we damaging the school and causing them to spend  more money on repairs? I believe that Davis responded correctly by charging the students for the damages they caused. Although the whole situation with the economy and our tuition is dire, there's only a limit on what Davis can do. I believe that Berkeley being passive was a bad move to make. By ignoring the damages that students cause with their protests, they make students students believe that they can get away with anything. By giving them what they want and not punishing them for their actions influences the students badly. Even though many people believe that violence is not the answer, sometimes it is required to keep things under control and leveled. It is interesting to see individual campus's reactions and how they handle these sort of activist situations.

Question: How much does our tuition have to decrease in order for everyone to be satisfied and stop protesting?