Zombie Horde Descends On UCSF Mission Bay To Protest Fee Hikes, Perform 'Thriller' [Updated] [1]

During a meeting of the UC Regents at UCSF's Mission Bay campus this morning, dozens students and campus workers dressed as zombies protest possible tuition fee hikes across the University of California system. The Regents are expected to approve [5] a proposal to raise tuition fees for up to 57 programs on UC campuses, which had the modest group of walking dead breaking out in to a flash-mobby rendition of Michael Jackson's 1982 megahit.

According to Bay City News, the protesters brought the meeting to a standstill with brain dead chanting and cheering after the hour-long public comment period ended around 9:30 a.m. this morning. UCSF Police however, started to get testy once the boombox came out with the opening notes of "Thriller." Calls for order from the Regents and threats of arrest from UCSF police, caused the skittish group to disperse, chanting "No cuts, no fees; education should be free," as the Regents went in to a closed session.

The zombie horde, it seems, supports Governor Brown's recent ballot initiative which proposes to raise the statewide sales tax as well as income taxes for California's richest folks. If passed, the ballot measure will channel $125 million in new tax revenue to the UC system, allowing it to hold off on any more tuition hikes. If the measure fails, the Regents will likely vote to increase undergraduate tuition by another 20% in order to cover a quarter-billion dollar budget shortfall.

Update: KTVU shares some raw video of the Thriller dance [9]. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom of all people, brings us updates from inside the meeting: the Regents voted to freeze [10] tuition hikes for now and the Lite Gov got a kick out of the zombie scene: