Last week, UC President Yudof proposed raising student fees by over 30 percent by the fall of 2010. This unprecedented increase of $2,500 will bring student fees to over $10,000 a year for resident students for the first time ever, leading the UC further away from its original mandate to provide free public education to the students of the state.

This is not an isolated action, but part of a pattern of behavior that has led to the UC's current crisis. On one hand, the California Legislature has defunded the UC system over the past decade, culminating in this year's 20 percent cut in state funding. On the other, President Yudof and the UC Regents have embraced a path towards privatization that includes furloughs for faculty, pay cuts and layoffs for the unversity's lowest paid workers and massive fee increases for students.

There is a budget crisis, but there is also a crisis of priorities. The leaders of our state-our own UC administrators and the California legislature-have failed to lead responsibly. That is why students, faculty and staff must organize together to fill the void of leadership.

As students, we face a drastic increase to our student fees, and an equally drastic cut to the quality of our education, and to the accessibility and diversity of the UC system.

The roots of this crisis can be found in Proposition 13 and California's broken tax structure; in our state's two-thirds majority requirement for passing any legislation; in our refusal to tax oil production; and in our prioritizing prison building over building universities and schools. However, these problems are compounded by the actions of the UC administration.

Our state's economic crisis requires long-term solutions, but the way in which this crisis has been seized upon to begin a program of privatizing the UC system requires that we act now. The administration has refused alternatives to its proposal for closing the budget gap. Some of these alternatives-which would reduce the burden on students, faculty and staff-include redirecting the surpluses created by the UC's revenue generating units (such as its medical centers), cutting the UC's highest-paid executives and reducing the massive proliferation of administrative positions in the UC Office of the President.

Students have won seemingly impossible victories before. In the 1980s, we organized together to make UC Berkeley the first U.S. university to divest from South Africa. CalSERVE is a student political coalition that has a long history of challenging the administration's abuses and fighting for a public education for the students of California. We have fought against fee increases for years and have shown that students can win victories for an accessible education. However, the urgency of our current situation requires mobilizing students like never before.

The CalSERVE coalition has identified fighting the budget cuts as our main focus for the coming year. CalSERVE senators have been taking part in meetings with faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates, as a part of the UC Berkeley Solidarity Alliance. A bill in support of the walkout was passed unanimously at the most recent ASUC senate meeting.

Students must be central to any long-term campaign to restore public higher education and fix our state's budget woes. However, our immediate concern is stopping the proposed 32% fee increase. The walkout is an important opportunity to protest the fee increase, as well as draw public attention to the crisis of priorities on the part of the Regents and the legislature.

Here's how to get involved:

1. Attend the CalSERVE planning meeting for the walkout, this Sunday at 4pm in 100 Wheeler.

2. Attend the faculty teach-in on Wed. Sep. 23rd at 7pm in Wheeler Auditorium.

3. Walkout on Sept. 24! Encourage your friends and professors to join the picket lines.

4. Attend the rally that day at 12 noon on Sproul Plaza.

5. Get educated: visit http://berkeleycuts.org and http://calserve.org.

Tags: FURLOUGHS, WALKOUT