Protests to continue in response to tuition increase

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON – Students and various organizations are set to band together at the chancellor’s office in Long Beach on Monday to demand a re-vote of the 9 percent increase in tuition approved by the CSU Board of Trustees.

Following the decision, Lt. Gov. and CSU Trustee Gavin Newsom issued a statement in which he requested a re-vote.

“Newsom requested that the chancellor and the Board of Trustees Chair Herbert Carter re-input or put on the agenda on Dec. 5 a re-vote of the potential bailout and 9 percent increase,” said Jessie Frietze, Associated Student Inc. chief governmental officer and a political science major.

The demand for the re-vote stems from the manner in which the board came to a decision.

“The action now is the students are demanding a re-vote of this, partially because of the actions that took place at the last Board of Trustees meeting — this vote was held not at the chancellor’s office, but instead at an undisclosed location because the Board of Trustees actually left the offices because there was too much commotion inside and outside the building and they felt threatened,” said CSUF alumnus Chirag Bhakta, who said he will be attending the rally.

Student protesters hope their participation will result in a re-vote and greater community awareness of the tuition increases.

“The ladder to higher education keeps getting harder and harder to climb,” Bhakta said. “The fact that we have fee increases itself means that there needs to be greater public awareness on the current funding of public education.”

-The Daily Titan
By Yvette Quintero

Institute of International Education survey: More U.S. college students studying abroad

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY – A November survey by the Institute of International Education has found that the number of U.S. college students studying abroad is on a rise for the second year in a row.

Penn State University Park was ranked seventh among research universities in 2009-2010, according to the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.

Nationwide, 270,604 U.S. students studied abroad for credit during 2009-2010, an increase of four percent over the previous year, according to the report. Compared to 10 years ago, U.S. student participation in study abroad has increased 88 percent.

Barbara Rowe, Executive Director of Education Abroad at University Office of Global Programs, said the number of Penn State students study abroad these years has been steady, and more students would choose non-traditional countries as their study abroad destinations.

“Global experience has become necessary today to help a student be more competitive in the job market. Many job interviews are even entirely about study abroad,” Rowe said.

-The Daily Collegian
By Wenqian Zhu

Local anti-war activists disagree on implications of U.S. involvement in Libya

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA – No new antiwar protests are in the works in Iowa City, despite reports of hostility at the hands of insurgents in post-Gaddafi Libya.

But local anti-war activists disagree on the actual implications of President Obama’s decision to intervene in the Libyan conflict this spring.

University of Iowa graduate student Dustin Krutsinger organized a protest this past spring against U.S. involvement in Libya.

According to a recently leaked United Nations document reported by The Independent, Libyans have been detained — and Africans in Libya lynched — by rebel forces now vying for power.

“Now that we realize that the people we were supporting weren’t as good as we had hoped, I’m glad we didn’t put in any more time or money into this campaign,” Krutsinger said.

However, UI senior Dan Olinghouse, who studied abroad this past spring when the protests broke out, said he believes the transition has gone fairly smoothly considering all factors.

“I’m not going to go around saying ‘I told you so,'” he said. “…it seems like it was a fairly clean intervention. It just took a while.”

-The Daily Iowan
By Melissa Dawkins