Following the lead of several elite Ivy League schools, UC Berkeley chancellors announced yesterday that they'll be cutting tuition costs for families with annual incomes between $80,000 and $140,000. In a conference yesterday, Berkeley officials promised that tuition next fall for middle class families will not exceed 15% of their annual income, marking the first time a public university has made such a move. more ›

It has begun. Today, a day after a mass walkout was planned for the UC system, 14 protesters were arrested "after they briefly shut down a regents meeting this morning in San Francisco where a proposed tuition hike was being discussed," reports SFGate. "Whose university? Our university! "Lay off Yudof!" was the chant students, faculty and other assorted staff members yelled at the UCSF's Mission Bay campus. (Yudof was none too please. One of his Twitter messages reflects that: "Lots of shouting. Be nice if everyone shouting respected the free speech rights of the rest of us. We'll take a break until we can resume.") According to CBS 5/BCN, "The interruption came during a public comment period that opened the daylong board meeting. During the public comment period, dozens of people had voiced their opposition to the plan, as well as their disapproval of UC President Mark Yudof." Also, San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos was one of the speakers voicing his frustration at the UC regents plan to increase fees and tuition. Even one of its own board members, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, is furious at the fee hikes, who said in a written statement, "[Yudof's] jaw-dropping proposal...will single-handedly take a University of California education off the table for thousands of hardworking students," The regents, by all accounts, should be ashamed of themselves. Seriously. Anyway, the arrested protesters were "cited for trespassing and unlawful assembly and released." The board will vote on the fee hike come November. more ›

Looking to go deeper in debt while you work toward an increasingly useless degree? Well, look no further than the UC system. Making this the sixth tuition hike in seven years, the UC Regents voted to increase student tuition by 9.3 percent yesterday. (An aside: They also agreed to hire several "new top administrators at eye-popping wages -- UC San Francisco and UC Davis landed new chancellors at annual booties of $450,000 and $400,000, respectively. Wee.) Will this most recent increase help the ailing UC system? No. No, it won't. As Regent Eddie Island of Oakland told the Chron, "I feel like I'm witnessing the death of a great institution ... We ought to pause and say, Where are we going with this? We know this isn't the last student fee increase. Are we giving up on affordability? Are we giving up on access? And what's the effect on diversity?" Let us help: yes, yes, and it's not good. Champagne wishes and hummus dreams, Regents. You bastards. In related news, overseas hackers swiped confidential information belonging to "tens of thousands of students and alumni at UC Berkeley and Mills College" after gaining access to systems at the Cal campus' health services center. Luckily, your tuition is going to pay for the organic wine collection of a transgressive comparative literature professor, not a decent IT team. more ›

In a day full of angry citizens locking themselves to large buildings, three students were also arrested this morning after chaining themselves to the entrance of the UCSF Mission Bay community center. It seems that they're hot and bothered over the UC Regents for a myriad of reasons, but mainly because of "fee hikes, the use of the SAT exam in student admissions, UC management of nuclear-weapons laboratories, and what they called the university's lack of diversity." Also, members of the UC Regent clan are appointed by the governor, not via election. Boo. more ›

It's our turn to read the Weeklies this week, and we start with SFist Sarah L's pick of last week, the newly-re-indied East Bay Express. Congrats! The letters hate on the UC Regents. Something about racial bias in contracting, we didn't really understand it. The story behind those "nappy headed hos" t-shirts at Bear Basics. Cover article: Some well-paid lackey of "Golden Pig" Don Perata. Bless their hearts at the EBX! They've also started summarizing their articles on their blog. We like the word "NeoXican." Book reviews! Daniel Handler v. the guy who wrote that You Suck vampire book. Pho in Oakland Chinatown. I Like Eating goes to a sports bar. Aaron Axelson compares Live 105 to Moneyball. And the EBX wins some writing awards, along with EBX alum and current SF Weekly editor Will Harper. Congrats! more ›

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Those poor UC Regents. All they wanted to do was knock down a few trees to build a new training facilityand for all this, they've been sued, had a bunch of people live in the trees , and saw Native Americans declare it a sacred site. Now they might be facing their most diabolical protest yet-- a work of community art. Oh, no, not community art. What's next, will the Dance Brigade stage an interpretive dance? more ›

Lots of gun-related mayhem in today's stories. One wonders why it is that everyone seems to be in a pissy mood lately. more ›

-Shakeup at Yahoo. We wonder if on the pink slips it says "Yahoo" or "Yahoo!" You know, as in "We really valued your employment at Yahoo!" more ›

Stadium issues aren't just affecting Bay Area professional teams, but college teams too. There's a fight going on about renovating Cal's Memorial Stadium that's been going on for the past few months. And it's even taken an "Only in Berkeley" angle: to protest the planned cutting down of some Oak trees, activists went all Julia Butterfly Hill and camped out on them before the Big Game. more ›

-Students at UC Santa Cruz clash with police during a visit by the UC Regents. At UC Santa Cruz? We thought that the only thing students did there is run around naked in the woods on mushrooms and do drum circles? -Hey, here's good news: the rental market is heating up. It's back to the days of rising rental prices and too many people looking. Yay! more ›

It's the Big Game this weekend! Guess who's not excited about it? more ›