University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials said they had to use pepper spray Thursday to help break up a rally at the campus after some protesters became violent while trying to enter the building that contains the chancellor's office.
Sixteen people were detained and 15 were arrested during the afternoon rally, university spokesman Tom Luljak said. The rally coincided with rallies at colleges nationwide, criticizing the rising cost of higher education.
Luljak said university police sprayed pepper spray in the air and called the Milwaukee Police Department for help after some protesters attempted to storm Chapman Hall, the building that houses Chancellor Carlos Santiago's office. Protesters were punching and kicking officers while some also threw snowballs and ice at the officers, Luljak said.
Video! There was some better video of cops getting pelted with snowballs on the 5:00 news, but I don't want to bother looking for it.
I'm not a protester because I can't really bring myself to feel so strongly about a position that I'll let some person I don't know direct me in some goofy chant while standing next to a guy with the American flag draped around him but I agree with them (even though UWM is still pretty cheap in my eyes, especially after Creighton). It's a question of priorities, and as long as the state feels comfortable passing costs onto students it won't stop. Do we really think the California model is the way to go?
The governor's plan aims to bring back the days when the state funneled more money into University of California and California State University classrooms than into its prisons. It has been at least five years since that has been the case. It comes at a time when tuitions are soaring and course offerings are being cut.
The state's public universities, long considered an economic engine and a source of pride for California, have proved to be an easier target for budget cuts than other major programs, which are protected by politically powerful unions, deep pocketed corporate interests or federal laws limiting the state's ability to cut.
"What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns?" Schwarzenegger said. "The priorities have become out of whack. . . . Thirty years ago, 10% of the general fund went to higher education and 3% went to prisons. Today, almost 11% goes to prisons and only 7.5% goes to higher education."
Wisconsin already spends 73 cents on incarceration for every dollar spent on education. More -
Between 1987 and 2007, Wisconsin actually cut its support for higher education by 6%. Only 6 states reduced their investment in higher ed by more. During the same period, Wisconsin increased corrections spending by 251%, 8th highest nation, despite a declining crime rate.
Wisconsin's incarceration rates are higher than the neighboring states of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa and the state's African American incarceration rate is the nation's highest.
I went to Oakland last week and there were two helicopters and two small planes circling the city watching Berkeley's student protest. I guess they took to the highway on foot at one point, and when they started arresting people someone jumped off and ended up in the hospital.
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