Fifteen students were arrested by CUNY Baruch campus police Monday when they tried to enter a CUNY Board of Trustees meeting to protest tuition hikes, campus police said.
About 150 students appeared at Baruch College just after 5 p.m. and tried to rush into the auditorium where the meeting was taking place, but were stopped by CUNY police officers, according to the Baruch student newspaper The Ticker. That's when campus police began making arrests.
The protest was organized by Students United for a Free CUNY, and was aimed at stopping the CUNY tuition hike plan.
The trustees were meeting to discuss how to implement the tuition hike of $300 a year for the next five years, reports the Daily News. Full-time resident undergraduate students pay $5,100 per year in tuition.
YouTube video shows students swarming the entrance to the auditorium, and some scuffles breaking out.
"We didn't want this to be violent," Brittany Robinson, a 21-year-old undergraduate student told the News. "We just wanted our voices to be heard."
SUNY students also protested state university tuition hikes Monday: In Albany, about 50 students marched on the Capitol to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reconsider tuition increases and keep intact the state millionaire's tax surcharge.
Local
Rallying in the hallway outside the governor's Albany offices, they said those policies were pushing them deeper into debt as students pay more and the state less.
