Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee organized Monday to rally students to fight the tuition increase and budget cuts passed this summer by the UW System Board of Regents.

The group aimed to increase student awareness, telling students and faculty passing by the rally they can stand up against a tuition increase instead of sitting back and accepting it, according to SDS Officer Natasha Morgan.

“This is a fight based on principle,” Morgan said. “We want the ‘rich’ to pay.”

She said they believe the top of the administration at UW-Milwaukee, including Chancellor Carlos Santiago’s office — as well as state officials and the governor — should be held accountable for the tuition increase and budget cuts rather than students taking on the debt of something they did not cause.

“While they enforced a 5.5 percent budget cut and wage decrease, Chancellor Santiago took a 3 percent salary increase,” Morgan said.

According to the SDS website, the chancellor’s salary has gone up 3 percent and is currently at $307,000 a year. Neither Santiago nor UW-Milwaukee administration were available for comment.

SDS had three demands they projected at the rally: Santiago and top officials at UW-Milwaukee take their share of pay cuts, transparency in budget cuts, and putting students and workers first.

“Our country is in an economic crisis; students need to fight for higher education, just as workers need to fight for their jobs and benefits and homeowners need to fight to keep their homes,” SDS member Jacob Flom said in a statement.

Regent Aaron Wingad, a student at UW-Eau Claire, said his decision to vote for the tuition increase was not an easy one, and it was made after careful thought and consideration.

Before the vote, he visited nine campuses to get student input and educate himself on the best available option for students.

“In the end, what I came down to was the 5.5 percent increase was the responsible way to move the UW System forward,” Wingad said.

Other groups at the rally included Progressive Students of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Graduate Assistant Association, and various other students and faculty members.

“We are trying to make students realize that they can stand up and demand that tuition doesn’t skyrocket and that faculty should be paid a decent wage,” SDS member Daniel Ginsberg-Jaeckle said.

According to Ginsberg-Jaeckle, the group has big plans to continue its efforts to engage students in their “right to affordable education” by working with various organizations, as well as staff members from every part of the university.

“We need to have a national movement to fight for (students and faculty’s) rights; it’s about a much bigger crisis,” Ginsberg-Jaeckle said.

Wingad added that due to the $250 million in budget cuts to the UW System, the only available options were to increase tuition or cut services, and the System worked to find the best possible balance of the two.

“In the end, it is hard to make a case for ‘Let’s cut campus programs and just freeze tuition,'” Wingad said.