Golden State Of Siege

So, yesterday's $10,000 plus tuition hike on a four year degree at a California state university? Not going over well with the college crowd.

Students were occupying buildings Friday on several campuses of the University of California system in protest of a 32 percent tuition hike.

Students had take over portions of buildings on campuses in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Davis late Thursday, and at least some were still occupied Friday morning.

Student organizers said they would escalate their protests after the system's regents approved the tuition hike during a meeting Thursday on the UCLA campus.

Authorities arrested dozens of angry students at the Davis campus late Thursday after they refused to vacate the school's administration building.

(More after the jump...)

The 52 students were taken into custody by the Davis Police Department and deputies from the Yolo County Sheriff's Department, according to Claudia Morain, a UC Davis spokeswoman.

The arrests at the Mrak Administration building came about four hours after the normal 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) closing time. At one point, as many as 150 students were at the building protesting the tuition increase, Morain said.

CNN affiliate KCRA-TV captured footage of students outside the building shouting, "Who's university? Our university!"

In response to the protests, university officials said they will convene a meeting Friday between students, the director of student affairs and the school's top budget officials.

Protesting students and others have said the tuition increase will hurt working and middle-class students who benefit from state-funded education. But officials argue that a fee increase and deep cuts in school spending are necessary because of a persistent budget crisis that has forced reductions across California's state government.

Glad to see California students know their history, at least. They're certainly getting a very harsh lesson in economics this year. Ss Digby points out, it'll only get worse as California will have to make tens of billions more cuts next year:

Well, that's comforting. Keep in mind that if California were a country it would be a member of the G8. This can't go on without affecting the rest of the country.

Once again, with feeling: cutting government spending during a recession makes the recession worse.

You wanted deficit reduction, America? You got it.