Students at Santa Monica College continue to protest on campus against tuition hikes in the three days following the pepper-spraying of demonstrators by campus police.
Hundreds of students at the community college rallied outside of the president's office demanding the school abandon a controversial two-tier pricing plan for classes.
The protesters issued written demands that the school put the issue through a campus-wide referendum and claimed they've pursued the controversial two-tier program in an undemocratic fashion. The Santa Monica Daily Press reports the District Planning and Advisory Council, which has student members, didn't see the two-tiered pricing proposal until eight days after the Board of Trustees voted to get the ball rolling.
The Santa Monica Board of Trustees will hold an emergency meeting Friday morning to discuss the two-tier funding program. California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott wants them to hold off on the plan, questioning the legality of it.
Under the proposal, students at Santa Monica would pay $180 per credit unit, an increase from $46 per unit, for in-demand courses. California State University is reportedly mulling its own version of this program.
California's community colleges have suffered $769 million in budget cuts from the state since 2009. At that point, the cost to take a class at Santa Monica College was only $26 per credit unit.
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