Cal State students decry proposed 'incentive' fees

Large majorities of California State University students said they are more likely to take out additional loans and delay their graduation if administrators impose incentive fees designed to free up classroom space.

The results are included in a survey released Monday of more than 2,400 students at the university’s 23 campuses. It was conducted by the activist group Students for Quality Education in response to proposals to impose three new fees for fall 2013.

The university system’s Board of Trustees will consider the plan during scheduled board meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in Long Beach.

The proposed fees include:

-- A $372 per-unit supplement for so-called “super seniors” who have already accumulated 160 units. In 2014, the supplement would apply to students who have earned 150 units.

-- A $91 per-unit fee for students who want to repeat a class. Officials estimate that each term, about 40,000 seats in classes are occupied by students who have already taken the course.

-- A $182 per-unit fee for any course load of 18 units or more, which is intended to discourage students from enrolling in a number of classes and then dropping some later.

Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed and other officials said the fees are designed to change the behavior of students who take too many courses, repeat them or drop classes midway through a term.

But students say budget cuts and slashed class schedules are the real problem. They contend that the fees will create more obstacles and a hierarchy favoring those who can pay.

“They’re being decided on without any proof from the chancellor that they’ll work,” Natalie Dorado, 26, an economics major at Cal State San Bernardino said during a telephone briefing. “Administrators refer to us as commodities, but we’re not theoretical components in a business model.”

Gregory Lewis said he’ll need 18 units during the fall 2013 semester to graduate from Cal State Dominguez Hills. To avoid paying additional fees he’d have to take only 16 units and then pay tuition for another semester for the last two he needs.

“It would put a bit of a burden on me as I do already work three jobs -- and I’m not rare in that sense,” said Lewis, 22, a sociology major. “If you’re rich and have the financial wherewithal, you can pay, no worries. But for most students, especially at my school, not a lot of them would be able to say 'OK, here’s $400 or $600 or however many dollars so I can hurry and get out of here.' ”

According to the survey, 70% of students said they’ve already had to delay their graduation, mostly because they can’t get classes. Sixty-eight percent of students said they would have to take on more loans if the fee plan were in place today; 63% said higher costs would further delay graduation.

Additionally, 59% said they would need to work more hours and 34% said they would consider dropping out. Three percent said higher fees would make them graduate sooner.

The students said they would present their survey to the board and urge them to postpone a decision.

The meeting comes a week after voters approved Proposition 30, a tax measure supported by Gov. Jerry Brown that was strongly endorsed by Reed and trustees to avoid deep cuts to higher education.

Its passage means that Cal State students will be refunded a $249-per-semester increase in regular tuition that took effect this fall.  

Brown is expected to attend Tuesday's board meeting, his office said.

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Photo: Students make their way on the campus of Cal State Northridge in 2011. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

LAPD called to 'Fort Hernandez' Occupy protest at Van Nuys home

 Los Angeles police were called to a Van Nuys home Monday that has been the site of an ongoing anti-foreclosure demonstration headed by Occupy protesters.

Officers accompanied inspectors to a home in the 14600 block of Leadwell Street, a watch commander at the Van Nuys police station said.

Dubbed "Fort Hernandez," Occupy activists have camped out at the home to support the family living there, who have been fighting foreclosure for years. The demonstrators have been there for 65 days and built a wall around the house, said protester Kylene Wolfstein.

"A lot of homeowners are scared, a lot of homeowners are ashamed to be foreclosed on," Wolfstein said. "This family is willing to hold the bank accountable."

Wolfstein said one person was detained Monday morning as police tore down the wooden wall. The watch commander said no arrests were immediately reported.

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Five people protesting 'Big Money' arrested outside downtown bank

Five people affiliated with a group that is demanding banks to be transparent about their campaign contributions to the 2012 presidential candidates were arrested Thursday morning during a protest outside a downtown bank branch, Los Angeles police said.

The arrests took place about 11:30 a.m. at the Citibank branch at 4th and Flower streets. The protesters were among a group of 30 people who marched from Pershing Square.

Those arrested -- including three men and two women -- were booked for failure to disperse and for blocking the sidewalk, LAPD officials said.

The protesters are part of 99Rise, which the group describes on its website as "a nationwide movement waging nonviolent struggle to get Big Money out of American politics."

Members of the group were acting in solidarity with group members in New York who staged a similar bank protest that also led to arrests.

Last month, eight members of 99Rise were arrested at a similar protest at a downtown Bank of America branch, Los Angeles police said.

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Photo: One of the five people arrested Thursday morning during a protest outside a downtown bank branch is escorted by police. Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Downtown L.A. streets closed by protest at LAPD headquarters

Los Angeles police Monday evening cordoned off streets near City Hall as dozens of protesters marched against police brutality. 

The protesters were gathering in front of the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street, between Main and Spring streets. Spring Street near City Hall and 1st Street were blocked off.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, police brutality's got to go!" they shouted as they walked past the LAPD headquarters. A truck and marchers with megaphones led the procession. They were followed by squad cars and officers on bikes.

The protest was peaceful, police said, and no arrests were reported. 

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twitter.com/LAJourno

Hunger strike continues at Corcoran

A rolling hunger strike that has moved through three California prisons had dwindled by Wednesday to 69 inmates, officials said.

The fasting began among some 500 inmates Oct. 10 at the state's maximum security Pelican Bay State Prison near Oregon and at the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles. By Friday, Pelican Bay inmates had resumed eating. Those in segregated housing units at Tehachapi continued to refuse prison-prepared meals until Wednesday, when they resumed eating, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

However, 69 inmates continued what is now a four-day fast at Corcoran State Prison.

Corrections officials said the inmates are protesting new gang control policies the state intends to put into place, defining when and how inmates suspected of gang membership are to be assigned to long-term segregation units away from the main population.

Conditions within those security housing units and the length of time inmates are held that way are the subject of a critical Amnesty International report and a subject of litigation. California has at least 78 inmates who have spent more than two decades in the tightly cloistered cells.

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Feds investigate claims of anti-Semitism at UC Berkeley

This post has been updated. See below for details.

The federal government is investigating charges that UC Berkeley officials fomented a hostile campus climate for Jewish students by failing to sufficiently tamp down anti-Israel protests.

The U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office confirmed this week that it has launched an investigation into the charges, first filed in July by two recent Berkeley graduates. They complained that an annual “Apartheid Week” in February featuring protests against Israel's treatment of Palestinians was one of several campus events that have stoked anti-Semitic hate speech.

By failing to curb such activities, the university is presenting “a disturbing echo of incitement, intimidation, harassment and violence carried out under the Nazi regime and those of its allies in Europe against Jewish students and scholars ... during the turbulent years leading up to and including the Holocaust,” the complaint alleges.

University spokesman Dan Mogulof rejected the allegations Wednesday, saying the campus protests were constitutionally protected speech and that officials had made extensive efforts to maintain a safe and inclusive climate. Among other things, he said, the university has set up a website for anonymous complaints, dispatched teams of students and administrators to monitor the campus climate and provided funding for Jewish and Muslim students to promote dialogue and coexistance.

He said U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg recognized the university’s actions last year in dismissing a complaint with similar allegations filed by the same students. A campus poll showed that 80% of Jewish students said they felt respected on campus, about the same proportion as Muslims, Mogulof said.

 “We completely reject any allegations that this university has failed to respond promptly and in an effective fashion any time the line that divides constitutionally protected speech from illegal activities gets crossed,” said Mogulof, who described himself as a dual American-Israeli citizen.

City Beat: Reporting on Occupy L.A. anniversary

It's been a year since Occupy L.A. got its start on the lawn in front of City Hall.

On Monday, Times staff writer Nita Lelyveld hit the streets of downtown to mark the anniversary and look at the legacy of the movement.

This is first of Lelyveld's "City Beat" dispatches, which will appear regularly in the newspaper and on latimes.com. She is turning to readers for ideas and for suggestions on stories she's working on. You can follow her on Twitter at @latimescitybeat. You can also reach her at nita.lelyveld@latimes.com.

This Twitter feed will serve as a first draft of her dispatches, including photos, observations and news.

Here's her reporting from today's Occupy L.A. anniversary.

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Occupy L.A. marks one-year anniversary with rally and march

Marking the one-year anniversary of downtown action that resulted in the massive encampment at City Hall, a couple hundred Occupy L.A. supporters gathered Monday in Pershing Square for a planned rally and march through the area.

Protesters prepared for a march through downtown, with signs and banners reading "Bankers Behind Bars" in support of income equality.

Pershing Square, the area covered in chalk protest writings, has become the center of the downtown Occupy L.A. movement since protesters were ousted from the City Hall lawn. Protesters are scheduled to march at 2:30 p.m.

“We will demonstrate at banks and other financial and governmental institutions representing the damaging interests of the 1%, who both caused, and yet have benefited from, the economic collapse and hardship they have visited on the rest of us,” the group said in a statement.

Some of the crowd wore an "American Spring" shirt, a play off the Arab Spring uprisings that have helped overthrow governments in the Middle East.

Protesters were ousted last winter from the City Hall lawn that they dubbed "Solidarity Park." City leaders had initially welcomed the group there last October as part of a nationwide protest against income inequality.

They were granted an exemption from laws regulating overnight camping in parks.  But concerns about health and safety, as well as the deteriorating condition of the lawn, prompted officials to evict the protesters two months later.

Since then, Occupy L.A. has held encampments on skid row and outside of the Central Cities Assn., a downtown business group.

Tensions have been high recently, with business owners complaining about violence and vandalism by the protesters. In August, 17 people were arrested at the monthly downtown Art Walk after police moved in on a group of protesters chalking the sidewalks.

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Photo: Occupy Los Angeles member James Hill shows off his Crayola chalk holder as he prepares to do "chalk art" at Pershing Square in August. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Council meeting packed for fired 'Gangnam Style' lifeguards

The small council chambers at El Monte City Hall were overflowing with about 300 people Tuesday night as residents discussed the firing of several lifeguards for making a video riffing off the Korean pop crossover phenom "Gangnam Style."

The crowd -- many of whom were high-school age -- filled the 100-seat chamber and poured into the hallways. Many were there to speak in support of the 13 lifeguards and a manager who lost their jobs after filming the video at a city pool.

Rodrigo Vega, a senior at Arroyo High in El Monte, came to voice his support for the group. "When I saw the video, it wasn't offensive or vulgar, just teens having fun," he said. "Firing them was a little rash. Maybe talk about it to them before making a decision."

The employees were fired after El Monte officials saw the video, which was uploaded to YouTube in August, and recognized the lifeguards in their work uniform and performing in a city pool. The video is a parody of the "Gangnam style" song that has exploded online, racking up more than 216 million views on YouTube.

By early September, supervisors in the Parks and Recreation Division called the employees -- including the manager, who did not appear in the video -- asking them to review pages from a staff manual about violations of city property before firing them.

Several of those who were fired also attended Tuesday's meeting in the hope of persuading city officials to hire them back.

Alexander Huerta, a 22-year-old student at Cal Poly Pomona, started as a junior lifeguard and has worked for seven years at the aquatic center. "I've invested a decade of my life in this place," Huerta said. "We want to keep working."

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LAPD defends chalk protest arrests at Artwalk

Los Angeles police officials Tuesday said they could have handled a skirmish with protesters at a downtown ArtWalk earlier this summer more smoothly and quickly but made no apologies for arresting people for using chalk to draw on sidewalks.

Following the July incident, for which the LAPD was criticized by protesters for overreacting, the department launched an internal review of its response. With that review now complete, the L.A. Police Commission, which oversees the department, were briefed on the findings at their weekly public meeting.

Cmdr. John Sherman acknowledged the department should have done a better job coordinating the arrival and deployment of scores of officers who were sent to help when the crowd became unruly. Sherman added that officials from the LAPD, the Fire Department and other city agencies failed to set up a unified command post for the ArtWalk, which made coordinating a response to the protesters more difficult.

PHOTOS: Confrontation at downtown L.A. ArtWalk

Sherman and Capt. Horrace Frank, who was in charge the night of the protests, stood by the decision to arrest seven people for using chalk handed out by protest organizers to draw on the sidewalks.  The drawings, Frank said, amounted to vandalism. He added that the congestion on the sidewalk created a safety issue as people were forced to walk in the streets amid traffic.