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Is student lending a speculative bubble? Is higher education a scam now? Malcolm Harris makes the case. The whole thing — a cogent, thorough analysis — is well worth reading, but here’s the money quote:
If tuition has increased astronomically and the portion of money spent on instruction and student services has fallen, if the (at very least comparative) market value of a degree has dipped and most students can no longer afford to enjoy college as a period of intellectual adventure, then at least one more thing is clear: higher education, for-profit or not, has increasingly become a scam.
Seriously. Go read.
Three days after police broke up an administration building occupation at Sacramento State, students at another CSU campus have launched their own sit-in.
Some twenty students at Cal State Fullerton began the sit-in last night at around nine o’clock, and they were joined by students from CSU Dominguez Hills later that evening. A newspaper report early this morning said that a group of UCLA CSU Los Angeles students were expected to join the protest today.
The action began after Fullerton’s president, Milton Gordon, refused to sign a student statement in support of public higher education or join with them in drafting an alternative statement for joint release.
Update | Either I misread that news report linked above or they’ve changed it, but it’s CSU Los Angeles students, not UCLA students, who have joined the occupation.
Second Update | Fullerton students are using the #reclaimCSU hashtag on Twitter. This is apparently the statement that CSUF’s president refused to sign.
Wednesday Update | The occupation is still ongoing … and they’ve got a blog!
Students occupying the administrations building at Sacramento State were rousted by police at three o’clock this morning, halfway through the third night of their action.
Activists staged sit-ins on eleven CSU campuses on Wednesday (and attempted a twelfth, though Long Beach officials closed the administration building before they arrived). Though most of those occupations ended voluntarily within a few hours, the Sac State students decided to stay put.
Relations between students and administrators at the Sac State occupation were mostly amicable until Friday evening, when police arrived to lock down the building. Activists who were already inside were permitted to stay, but no new people — and no new supplies — were allowed entry.
At 3:24 am, according to tweets from the occupiers, campus police in riot gear appeared at the building’s back entrance. They told the group that they had already called for backup from the SFPD, and that students had five minutes to clear the building. “Students made it out safely,” according to the final tweet of the series, “and no arrests were made.”
The folks behind the occupation will be meeting this afternoon to plan their next steps. Follow their blog for more.
Students are conducting administration building occupations in at least seven eleven of the 23 campuses of the California State University system. The student activists are protesting budget cuts and demanding the resignation of the Cal State chancellor, Charles B. Reed.
Reports on Twitter show that occupations are currently underway at San Francisco State, Northridge, Sacramento, Monterey Bay, East Bay, Pomona, and San Jose. Activists are tweeting live from the scene of the various occupations using the #Apr13 hashtag.
I’ll be liveblogging as the situation develops, so be sure to check back in over the course of the afternoon and evening.
Update: 4 pm Pacific Time | The occupations currently underway are part of a statewide day of protest throughout the CSU system. According to this article, student/faculty demonstrations were planned for all of the Cal State campuses today.
4:10 pm | CSU Fresno students held an occupation this afternoon, bringing the total to eight campuses. According to a report from @alexandrasaras on Twitter, about eighty students participated, shutting down at least part of the building for about two hours. The CSUF president wasn’t on campus today, but protesters have been promised a meeting with her tomorrow.
4:50 pm | Looks like most of the occupations are winding down, with students making plans for future actions in coming days and weeks. Reports on Twitter suggest that there have been occupations at as many as eleven CSU campuses this afternoon, with a twelfth — Long Beach — seeing the admin building shut down to keep students out. More soon.
5:40 pm | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says eight hundred students marched on the administration building at CSU Long Beach. News reports are also coming in from San Jose, Bakersfield, San Francisco, and Stanislaus, among others.
6:00 am | Although almost all of yesterday’s occupations ended voluntarily after a few hours, students at Sacramento State kept their occupation going overnight. They’re still there, and are gearing up for a Day Two rally when the administration building officially re-opens at seven o’clock. Local media are apparently on their way.
Maryland’s legislature this week passed a bill that would grant in-state tuition to undocumented — but longtime Maryland resident — students at the state’s public colleges and universities. The state’s governor, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill.
It should be noted, though, that this bill forces undocumented students to jump through hoops that citizens and documented immigrants don’t. In addition to showing that they’ve paid Maryland state taxes before and during their college attendance, students have to show that they did their final three years of high school in the state, and they are required to begin their studies at a community college — only after graduating with an associate’s degree are they eligible to transfer to a four-year school.
studentactivism.net 
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