Thousands of students, professors and other staff at the 10 University of California (UC) campuses staged mass protests yesterday against deep cuts to budgets that have led to enforced periods of unpaid leave, higher fees and job losses.

The cuts are in response to a gap of about $800 million in the UC budget – just one symptom of the roughly $15 billion of debt faced by the state. Stem-cell researchers have suffered, as have lab construction projects.

AP reports that about 1,200 of UC’s roughly 19,000 faculty members signed a letter supporting the walkout.

Berkeley saw the biggest demonstration, with more than 5000 people gathering for a two hour rally. (San Jose Mercury News)

The Guardian likens the protests to the heady days of the 1960s when Berkeley earned a reputation for student activism. Author and scholar at UC Berkeley’s geography department Gray Brechin told the Guardian: “California is beyond broke. The wealthiest state in the nation is bankrupt.”

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