Students in the UC and CSU systems have staged protests and occupied buildings on campus this year to rally against staggering fee increases. Those activities, in turn, have created thousands of dollars in costs for universities, from police overtime to, in some cases, repair fees for damaged property.
Some universities are covering the costs with campus funds, while a couple others have demanded small groups of students pay restitution for varying parts of the price tag.
Flickr photo by stuartpilbrow
UC Santa Cruz this week hit 36 students with fines of $944 each to cover the cost of cleaning up and repairing Kerr Hall after it was occupied for several days in November, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. University officials say the total $33,992 bill includes the cost of cleanup and repairs only – not the cost of police time.
The fine was the result of an investigation by a judicial affairs officer that found the 36 students had participated in the demonstration, university spokesman Jim Burns said.
"Everybody understands that people have a right to call attention to those issues via a protest," he said. "What we don't accept is that protest has to terrorize workers, has to displace them for several work days and then leave the campus with a $34,000 cleanup and repair bill."
The students can appeal the fines, and at least some of them likely will do so.
"They don't have any evidence of anyone doing anything in particular other than being in the space," student Timothy Clark told the Sentinel.
A UC Santa Cruz professor criticized the university's move, calling it a "tactic of fear."
At San Francisco State University, 11 students arrested for trespassing during an occupation of the school's business building in December are required to pay $744 each to cover the cost of damages and other expenses.
The total $8,000 price tag, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, includes not just custodial services but also the cost to replace a window that police broke in order to enter the building, along with "overnight lodging expenses for some of the officers brought to the campus."
The arrested SFSU students signed an agreement admitting that they had occupied the building and agreeing to pay restitution, but university officials told them the cost would be "minimal" – around $50 each, students told the Chronicle.
At UC Berkeley, the Daily Californian reported recently that a $211,000 "protest fund" set up at the university was not going to be enough to cover the costs of extra police work, cleanup, repairs and replacements necessitated by protests and occupations this academic year. University officials told the paper the additional costs could be covered in part by "cuts to programs such as human resources, finance or police services."
And at UC Davis, March 4 protests cost roughly $14,000 for extra law enforcement presence and to cover the university fire department's cost to respond to 19 false fire alarms that day, spokeswoman Claudia Morain said. The school also brought in outside law enforcement from neighboring police departments and the California Highway Patrol to keep protesters off the freeway, she said. That extra help came through mutual aid agreements and didn't cost the university anything.
The protests did not result in very much property damage or cleanup efforts, and the university has no plans to charge students for the $14,000, Morain said.
"I can remember that coming up in a meeting or two, but we're not doing that at this point," she said.
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