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UC Protests Planned for Today
The University of California system is facing a $535 million budget gap and is looking for solutions. That could mean higher tuition next year for students, but more immediately, officials are looking to require furlough days that would amount to a 4% to 10% pay cut for support staff and technical workers. If unions don't accept those, layoffs are the next option.
A protest is planned for noon today at UCLA, reports the LA Times. And even if teachers don't join protest, many are expected to bring the subject in class:
At UCLA, classics professor Katherine King said she planned to join a noon rally and then go to the first day of her undergraduate class about ancient epic literature. There, she said, she would answer questions about the syllabus and assigned readings but would not deliver her usual first-day lecture. And she planned to encourage discussions about how to keep UC "a public university affordable to everyone," King said.
Today is the first day of classes for most UC schools, but protests are planned at all campuses.