By Sarah Morrison
UC students still hope to meet with UC President Mark Yudof, shown here in a controversial interview with New York Times Magazine.
Just days after dozens of students were arrested at a UC Berkeley occupation to protest increased tuition fees and staff layoffs, approximately 60 UC Berkeley and community college students stormed into the lobby of the University of California headquarters in Oakland on Monday, Nov. 23, demanding to speak with UC President Mark Yudof.
He was out of state and unavailable to meet with students when they entered the property in the afternoon, but what happened next was hailed as a “huge success” by the students. They spent an hour and a half sitting on the floor of the marbled lobby in conversation with two UC officials.
“We just kept on saying that we should have done it a long time ago,” said Xander Lenc, a third year UC Berkeley student who was one of 40 students arrested for occupying the second floor of Wheeler Hall last Friday in protest of the 32 percent fee increase that will take tuition at UC Berkeley to above $10,000 next fall. “UC officials have been completely absent from any efforts that students have been involved in until now when we have finally brought it to their front door step.”