Students stage ‘ramen-in’ to protest increased fees at community colleges

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Ramen will take over the governor’s office here in Los Angeles and in San Francisco Friday. Hundreds of community college students are expected to show up with boxes and boxes of the noodles, rallying to protest the potential increase in student fees. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed an extra fee of $10 per course unit.

With the normal academic year consisting of 30 units, that’s $300 and to those on a budget that’s a lot of money. ‘It’s clear that the fee increases will push many of our students out of higher education altogether,’ said Larissa Dorman, a member of the San Diego City College faculty. And for those who stay, they ‘will literally be paying more for less.”

“I know a lot of students who are barely surviving as it is,” said L.A. Valley College student Elizabeth Valldejuli. “We’re just trying to put into perspective how much this is going to cost us.”

Hence the ramen: Particularly for students who don’t have the time or kitchen supplies to cook real food, ramen is an easy option -- a meal for less than $1 that can be made simply by combining what comes in the packaged cup with boiling water.

As San Diego City College student Jose Rodriguez explained, if this goes through, everyone will be ‘eating ramen for breakfast, lunch and dinner.’

Los Angeles protest: 1:30 p.m., Governor’s Office, 300 S. Spring St.

San Francisco protest: 1:30 p.m., Governor’s Office, 350 McAllister St., between Polk and Larkin streets

-- Emma Wartzman