The University of California – Santa Cruz student occupation has been another addition to the chaos of California’s budget crisis.

On Friday, my colleague Ned wrote a post about the UCSC occupation with the title, “UCSC Students Go All TBNYU On the Administration.” Yesterday, the Washington Square News ran a piece titled, “Occupation at UCSC similar to TBNYU’s,” along with a staff editorial agreeing with the UCSC students’ reasoning while condemning their methods.

Set aside the fact that WSN (as usual) failed to attribute credit to NYU Local for breaking the story while adding almost no value to it. The news piece isn’t the issue in today’s paper. The editorial, however, is a factually inaccurate, poorly thought-out mess that needs to be addressed.

Here’s the first substantive bit from the WSN editorial (emphasis added):

While the WSN editorial board doesn’t necessarily condone [the UCSC] students’ actions, we recognize that they are fighting for a worthy cause. In a previous editorial, we cautioned NYU not to allow budget constrictions to affect the quality of education. But we think UCSC has sacrificed academics to cut costs, and by raising tuition by 30 percent — mid-semester, no less — the school has burdened students at a time when students cannot handle the burden.

First of all, the University of California has not raised tuition yet. They are considering a phased-in hike of undergraduate tuition fees in two installments: a 15% bump in the spring semester and a 15% bump in fall 2010. That means that this year, if the plan is approved, students will pay 7.5% more than they expected to pay.

Of course, any increase in tuition can be a burden to students, but you have to keep the proper perspective (which requires the facts). Almost one-third of the increased fees are set aside for financial aid.

The editorial continues:

Compared to TBNYU’s occupation, we are more sympathetic to the UCSC students than our own. At UCSC, it appears there is more of a focus on realistic, legitimate goals, rather than extraneous and self-serving promotional goals listed by TBNYU.

They need to read UCSC’s statement again. There are no goals. Yes, they note a lot of the pain the UC schools, faculty, administration, and students are feeling. But they only call for everyone to “occupy and escalate.” Regardless of whether or not you agreed with them, TBNYU did, in fact, have goals.

WSN continues (emphasis added):

UCSC’s students have a clear focus in mind: budget. Their administration has drastically increased tuition, forced faculty furloughs and cut courses, all in the name of budget. We are used to increased tuition, but NYU is a private school. We knowingly chose to attend here, despite the price tag. But UCSC is a public, state school, and students depend on consistency in price. And forcing furloughs on faculty and cutting courses directly and negatively impact educational quality [sic]. The students are right to protest, and we believe they truly have all students in mind rather than themselves.

I find it interesting that this editorial never mentions the reason for the rising tuition, furloughs, and budget cuts: the massive fiscal crisis in California. The state faces a projected budget shortfall of over $40 billion. The reduced funding from the state (as it tries to balance its own budget) and increasing costs have left the UC system with a projected $753 million budget shortfall.

What that kind of financial trouble leads to is hard decisions. They must find a way to balance the budget. Unlike the Federal Government, they cannot continue to carry a huge debt. So workers have to take days off. Students have to pay more. These kind of cutbacks are happening all around the state of California. Of course it has a “negative impact” on the education system, but would it be fair to keep tuition low while many more staff saw reduced wages or layoffs?

So what is it the students are protesting? If it’s a failed system of government and referendums, I totally agree. But anger at the UC system itself seems displaced – some of the finest schools in the country are part of it and, indeed, a high-quality education there comes at a much lower price than NYU or the Ivy Leagues.

For the WSN editorial board, it must seem a lot easier just to read the UCSC occupiers’ press release, gratuitously bash on TBNYU, and avoid any sort of serious thought about a tricky subject.