Authorities are bracing for more protests today as the University of California Board of Regents votes to approve a controversial 8% tuition increase. The move fueled protests that turned violent yesterday, when nearly 300 demonstrators clashed with officers at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. When it was over, 13 people were arrested, including 10 UC students, and four officers suffering minor injuries.

Demonstrators trying to storm the building where the regents were meeting surrounded UC officers, who had barricaded a bank of elevators in a campus garage. “We tried to get into the meeting and go down the stairwell,” said one student. She said the cops “started pushing up the stairwell. Someone fell on top of me, and then there was pepper spray.”

At one point, a student got hold of a officer’s baton, and clubbed him in the head. That officer unholstered his service gun in self-defense and called for help. No shots were fired, and that student, allegedly from UC Merced, was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon– a felony offense.

At least 15 people were treated after police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, which also included UC staffers angry over proposed pension reforms. They include a higher retirement age for new workers, and increases in employee contributions.

“Where’s the justice in that?” asked UC staffer Lakesha Harrison. “What are you doing with this money? What’s happening to the money that you are spending on the student fees if it’s not coming to the workers?”

The UC Board of Regents is meeting right now in San Francisco and is expected to give final approval to an 8% tuitition hike that would raise student fees for state residents to more than $11-thousand dollars, and comes just months after a 32% tuitition increase took affect.

UC officials say they need the money following deep cuts in state funding, but some students say they may have to drop out.

Protests are expected on all 10 UC campuses today. Police say they’re better prepared to handle any violence.

More updates to come.