Almost two months after thousands of UC Berkeley community members rallied on Sproul Plaza to protest budget cuts and furloughs, organizers are readying for another strike, this time to protest a proposed student fee increase.

UC Berkeley students have organized a three-day campuswide strike beginning Nov. 18 to coincide with the UC Board of Regents meeting at UCLA from Nov. 17 to 19, where the regents are slated to increase undergraduate student fees by 32 percent and also raise fees for professional students.

Whereas faculty initiated the Sept. 24 walkout to protest a decision by UC administrators to prohibit teaching-day furloughs, the strike was primarily initiated by students who are seeking to protest the 32 percent fee increase.

Major organizations spearheading the strike are largely the same as the last: the Berkeley Solidarity Alliance, Student Worker Action Team, General Assembly, Graduate Student Organizing Committee and CalSERVE. Many of these groups sprung out of the of the events leading up to the Sept. 24 walkout.

More than 1,500 students and faculty across the system have signed a petition pledging to strike. Still, only about 70 UC Berkeley faculty members have signed a strike solidarity pledge, whereas two days before the start of the Sept. 24 walkout, about 150 faculty members had signed.

"My suspicion is that a fee increase will pass and students will have to deal with that," said Jack Citrin, a UC Berkeley political science professor who plans to hold his regular Thursday class. "I think the regents will say, 'I feel your pain, but this is what we have to do.'"

Local chapters of the University Professional and Technical

Employees (UPTE) and Coalition of University Employees (CUE) unions are also striking to protest what they call the university's unfair labor negotiations.

The actual scale of the strike will not be known until it takes place, but Ricardo Gomez, a member of Berkeley Students Against the Cuts and the Solidarity Alliance, said this was also the case with the Sept. 24 walkout.

Organizers said some UC students, including about 30 from UC Berkeley, will drive down in buses to join the protests at UCLA, while students from other Northern California campuses are encouraged to protest at UC Berkeley.

"I think its really important for students to be physically present at the regents meeting, because the regents basically assume that they will get away with this," said Isaac Miller, a co-signatory of CalSERVE and leading member of the Solidarity Alliance.

Steve Montiel, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, said UC officials respect students' right to demonstrate, but suggested students direct protests to the state legislature instead.

Student organizers said the regents have other options than to raise fees, and should be held accountable for them.

"We are involved in marching in Sacramento, but before we do that we need to make sure that our own house is in order," Miller said.

Senior Yesenia Ramos, an integrative biology major, said she will participate in the rally because she feels UC President Mark Yudof should note how fee increases could influence minority students.

Still, other students said they were less inclined to miss class in order to protest, even though they are against the fee increases.

"I paid to be in those classes and to be taught by these professors … but I'll show my support in different ways," said senior Ashley Thomas, a public health and English double major.

Tags: STUDENT-WORKER ACTION TEAM, BERKELEY SOLIDARITY ALLIANCE, COALITION FOR UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES, NOVEMBER STRIKE, UNIVERSITY PROFESSIONAL & TECHNICAL EMPLOYEES, BUDGET CUTS