March 1, 2010 11:19AM # Higher Tuition and Two Subway Sandwich Shops!? Berkeley Students Declare War By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE A few months ago [I highlighted a report](https://www.cato.org/2009/12/03/college-students-to-taxpayers-rent-now-oppressors/) about growing college-student “activism” focused not on lofty ideals like ending war or oppression, but on taking money out of taxpayers’ wallets and putting it into students’. Well today I apologize for doubting the high-minded idealism of at least some of our crusading college kids. Yes, [recent student rioting](http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14476518?nclick_check=1) in Berkeley, California was partially animated by outrage over moves to have students pay more for their [massively subsidized educations](https://www.cato.org/2009/11/20/california-grubbing/), but the property destruction was about much, MUCH more than that: > Crowds outside the building continued to swell, and by about 1:30 a.m., people began to clash with police, throwing bottles, setting trash ablaze and breaking several windows on Telegraph, including the plate-glass front windows of a Subway sandwich shop, police said. Protesters lit a large garbage container on fire, then rolled it into the street… > > > A protest leader, UC Berkeley student Callie Maidhof, defended the vandalism and said rioters targeted the sandwich shop because a second Subway is scheduled to open on campus, just across Bancroft Way. > > > “There will be two Subways within 100 feet of each other,” she said. The Vietnam War. Crushing racial segregation. *A glut of hoagie shops!* The student battle for justice clearly goes on! And Californians have much more to look forward to: Thursday will be a statewide “Day of Action,” and in addition to deafening demands for continued taking from taxpayers, students will no doubt also give Fuddruckers, or maybe even Starbucks, it’s long-deserved comeuppance. The day of liberation — and really amped-up rent-seeking — is finally at hand! ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).