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Students in the University of California system staged walkouts on campuses throughout the state Monday, in response to proposed tuition hikes at their schools. Last week, the UC Board of Regents voted for hikes of up to 5 percent a year, for the next five years, unless state funding is increased. California Gov. Jerry Brown has come out against the tuition increases, and as a UC regent himself, he also voted against the measure. But the regents approved the hike in a 14-7 vote.

Students at UC Berkeley, the system's flagship campus, have taken the lead in protesting the hikes. They've organized a group called "The Open UC." The group's website lays out their beliefs:

"Education is a universal human right. These tuition hikes, as well as concerted efforts by the UC's to privatize their schools, have attempted to transform education from a right into a privilege. That is what is at stake here. Financial burden from public education, which should be free, is perpetually placed on students instead of the state. This must end."

Hannah Berkman, a Berkeley sophomore speaking on behalf of the group, told NPR that their message is simple. "We do not accept this," said Berkman. "These tuition hikes really put into question our right to accessible, affordable public education." Berkman says students at UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UCLA are taking part in Monday's walkout.

Protesting students at Berkeley began occupying a university building, Wheeler Hall, last Wednesday. The first few nights of that occupation, more than 200 people camped out in the space, which is home to the university's English Department. Berkman says those numbers have dwindled, but the university administration is allowing students to stay overnight in the space.

One Berkeley student has been arrested so far in protests. But he was on the campus of UCSF Mission Bay, not Berkeley.

In a statement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks says low-income students will actually see their tuition decrease over the coming year, and "the vast majority of California students from families earning less than $150,000 a year will see no increase." In an email to NPR, a Berkeley spokeswoman said about 40 percent of undergrads there don't pay any tuition at all.

But Berkman says the university's statement isn't definitive enough. "It's not even clear; that's the problem," says Berkman. "It hasn't even been made clear what that means. It just says the majority."

Berkman also says it's wrong to raise tuition in the midst of salary hikes for high-level university administrators. "A 20 percent salary increase for higher-level administrators seems really, really unnecessary and hypocritical if you're increasing tuition by this much," says Berkman. She is alluding to UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, whose salary was increased to $485,000 earlier this year.

Student protesters have been tweeting from their walkouts. One tweet showed a sign Berkeley marchers carried throughout campus: "Remove Janet Napolitano As UC President." They've also called for increased minority enrollment in the UC system, and "full citizenship for undocumented immigrants." Another tweet had an image of a handwritten sign on a student's back that read, "You are not a loan!"

ENORMOUS march and rally happening now at UC Berkeley to protest tuition hikes. #OpenUC #OpenUniversity #FightTheHike pic.twitter.com/gtarL24UEg

— Not Frantz Fanon (@violentfanon) November 24, 2014

In Washington, D.C., a city with one of the highest costs of living in the nation, low-income residents are having trouble buying affordable housing — not because of a lack of it, but because of all the red tape.

Nearly 1 in 5 D.C. residents lives at or below the poverty line.

D.C. real estate developer Buwa Binitie offers affordable housing units as well as market-rate condos and says his rental properties can get snapped up quickly but the for-sale properties take a whole lot longer.

"The affordable units we're selling for $171,000, and the market-rate units we're selling for $230,000. All the market-rate units sold in two months, but it's taken me 11 months to dispose of 11 affordable dwelling units," he says.

Binitie blames the holdup on the hoops prospective buyers must jump through.

The first trick, says National Low Income Housing Coalition President Sheila Crowley, is proving your income is low enough to qualify for affordable housing yet high enough to get a mortgage. In D.C., you must make below 80 percent of the area median income of $107,000 for a family of four.

"Part of it is this square-peg-into-a-round-hole thing that we try to do in housing, and that's a conundrum," Crowley says.

She says this conundrum exists nationwide, and in D.C., it's compounded by more requirements: Prospective buyers of affordable housing must also attend homebuying training, and if they want to get a loan, they must navigate the labyrinth of city government.

Marilyn Phillips just bought her very first condo. An affordable housing organization called Manna walked her through the process.

“ The D.C. government and the federal government want to make sure that the subsidies that they're providing are going to people that actually need them.

- Sarah Scruggs of Manna, an affordable housing organization

"People can get frustrated with all the hoops you have to jump through," Phillips says. "All of the information they want to gather from you, it can make you feel like, 'Why do you need all this information?' "

The 58-year-old has been fighting breast cancer for years, and now she can finally save money.

"I pay most of my Social Security disability check to my landlord now. I pay $900 a month. My mortgage at this new place is only $224 a month," she says.

Sarah Scruggs works for Manna and says the bureaucracy surrounding affordable homeownership is well-intentioned.

"The D.C. government and the federal government want to make sure that the subsidies that they're providing are going to people that actually need them," Scruggs says.

But what happens is many low-income individuals decide to just keep renting or scrape their pennies together for a market-rate unit "because they don't have to deal with the paperwork required to buy an affordable dwelling unit," Scruggs says, "and they don't have to deal with the restrictions."

U.S.

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For example, there's a restriction in D.C. that limits maximum resale price and makes homeowners wait anywhere from five to 20 years before they sell.

Michael Kelly, director of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, says he understands how unwieldy the process can be. "Unfortunately, with all government programs, there are bureaucracies and provisions that go with that," he says. "We're doing everything we can to streamline that effort."

The current mayor has vowed to build 10,000 affordable units for sale and lease by the year 2020; he hopes his successor will continue toward that goal. But under the current system, it could be a while before every unit has an owner to call it home.

affordable housing

real estate

OPEC's decision not to cut production continues to reverberate through global oil markets, with the price of Europe's benchmark Brent crude falling to a four-year low today – bad news for petroleum exporters in the Middle East and Russia, but good news for nearly everyone else.

Brent crude oil steadied at about $73 a barrel on Friday after reaching a low of $71.12, its lowest level since July 2010, according to Reuters.

Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's Rosneft, says he thinks oil prices averaging $70-$75 per barrel through 2015. That prediction was in line with what Bill Hubard, chief economist at Markets.com, told Reuters:

"I think $70 a barrel will be the new norm. We could see oil go considerably lower," he said.

According to Bloomberg, the Russian oil giant has lost 38 percent of its market share.

The New York Times reported after the conclusion of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday:

"A more than 30 percent decline in prices in recent months has shaken the 12-member group. For three years, OPEC had little trouble keeping prices in the $100-a-barrel range that many of its members consider satisfactory.

"But markets have spun out of OPEC's control of late. Prices have come under pressure as global output of crude oil outstripped demand this year. Analysts forecast excess supplies of crude to continue to build in 2015.

"The main new source of supply is oil extracted from shale in the United States, which is expected to add about one million barrels a day of oil production this year and an additional one million barrels a day in 2015."

OPEC

oil prices

OPEC's decision not to cut production continues to reverberate through global oil markets, with the price of Europe's benchmark Brent crude falling to a four-year low today – bad news for petroleum exporters in the Middle East and Russia, but good news for nearly everyone else.

Brent crude oil steadied at about $73 a barrel on Friday after reaching a low of $71.12, its lowest level since July 2010, according to Reuters.

Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's Rosneft, says he thinks oil prices averaging $70-$75 per barrel through 2015. That prediction was in line with what Bill Hubard, chief economist at Markets.com, told Reuters:

"I think $70 a barrel will be the new norm. We could see oil go considerably lower," he said.

According to Bloomberg, the Russian oil giant has lost 38 percent of its market share.

The New York Times reported after the conclusion of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday:

"A more than 30 percent decline in prices in recent months has shaken the 12-member group. For three years, OPEC had little trouble keeping prices in the $100-a-barrel range that many of its members consider satisfactory.

"But markets have spun out of OPEC's control of late. Prices have come under pressure as global output of crude oil outstripped demand this year. Analysts forecast excess supplies of crude to continue to build in 2015.

"The main new source of supply is oil extracted from shale in the United States, which is expected to add about one million barrels a day of oil production this year and an additional one million barrels a day in 2015."

OPEC

oil prices