California Colleges Students Stage Zombie Protest Against Tuition Hikes At UC San Francisco Campus

The University of California Board of Regents didn't know when they walked into their meeting Wednesday, they would encounter zombies.

Students dressed as zombies, in face paint and torn clothes, interrupted the UC Regents meeting  in San Francisco for at least 15 minutes during a public comment session. The students were demonstrating against possible tuition hikes to the UC system.

“We're dressed like zombies because the debt is killing us,” said Matt Wade, a UC Berkeley doctoral student.

"To some extent, we are all infected by this disease called debt," said  Honest Chung, a UC Berkeley history major.

The average student at the University of California graduates with $17,000  in student loan debt.


The UC Regents did vote to freeze undergraduate tuition for now , contingent on whether Gov. Jerry Brown's November ballot initiative to increase taxes passes. The regents were considering a 6 percent increase for the 2012-13 year. If it does not, UC will likely increase tuition by 20 percent mid-year.

That would mean each student would have to pay an additional $2,400 in the middle of the academic year.