The UC Board of Regents officially approved a 32 percent student fee increase.

At today’s meeting, board members cast their votes - with only one dissenting - to hike mandatory systemwide undergraduate student fees to over $10,000 next year. The increase will occur in two stages, with the first 15 percent spiking midyear fees from $7,788 to $8,373 and the next 15 percent upping 2010-11 fees to $10,302.

This fee hike marks the ninth time in seven years that the UC Regents approved an increase in undergraduate tuition fees.

Student Regent Jesse Bernal, a UCSB graduate student, cast the only vote against the proposal.

Across the UCLA campus, protesters held rallies against the fee hike. Some students also occupied a university lecture hall for a sit-in demonstration.