Police arrested 52 people at UC Davis after hundreds protested a 32 percent increase in undergraduate student fees on Thursday.

 

The University of California regents on Thursday approved the increase, despite protests by hundreds of demonstrators outside the regents' meeting at UCLA.

 

By next fall, undergraduate fees will be boosted by $2,500, sending the average annual education cost at a UC campus to more than $10,000. That's triple the amount from a decade ago.

 

Hundreds of angry students protested Thursday inside and outside Mrak Hall at UC Davis. One person held a sign saying "Question UC Leadership." Another read "Don't Deprive Me Of My Education."

 

Protesters continued to remain at the scene late Thursday as police gathered around for crowd control.

 

Police departments from Sacramento, West Sacramento, Woodland, Davis, Vacaville, Winters and UC Davis responded to the protests, along with the Yolo County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol.

 

 

UC Davis spokeswoman Julia Ann Easley said just before 5 p.m. that there were 200 students inside the building, even though it closes at 5 p.m. By 6:30 p.m., there were fewer than 100 students inside the hall.

 

Easley said the university offered the students a meeting with university officials about the budget situation.

 

Mrak Hall is the primary location of the UC Davis administration. It was built in 1966 and is named in honor of Chancellor Emil Mrak.

 

Regents said they had to raise fees because the cash-strapped state government can't meet the university's funding needs.

 

Some protesters, angry over a hefty student fee increase, earlier linked arms to block the exits of a building where the regents met. University spokesman Phil Hampton said regents safely left UCLA Thursday by police escort.

 

Hampton said much of the crowd had dispersed by mid-afternoon.

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