November 24, 2014

The Board of the Free Speech Movement Archives is in solidarity with UC state-wide protests against increased tuition fees.  In raising tuition, the Regents are in direct violation of the Master Plan for Higher Education, the Donahoe Act, signed into law by Governor "Pat" Brown on April 27, 1960.

This standing law guarantees that tuition at the UC campuses will never be charged, in order to make higher education in the state accessible to all people.  Whether the discriminatory charges are called tuition or fees, they violate the guiding principle of the law: that higher education ought to be available to all eligible California high school graduates regardless of their economic means.

 We also call on the Governor and the State Legislature to live up to their responsibilities, as required by the CA Education Code, "to ensure that resources are provided" to permit all eligible students  wishing to attend the University of California to do so, without demanding reductions in the quality of the UC education offered to them.

Signed,

The Board of Directors of the Free Speech Movement Archives

Lee Felsenstein, Gar Smith, Anita Medal, Bettina Aptheker, Susan Druding, Barbara Garson, Jackie Goldberg, Lynne Hollander Savio, Jack Radey, Barbara Stack, Robert Cohen

See other statements here