While most students and faculty took Monday off to observe the furlough day, Sarah Yoon and Melissa Wheeler were on campus that morning because of the budget cuts.
The two Cal State Long Beach students were going to Sacramento later that day to deliver 2,000 letters to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers to “humanize the issue” of the budget cuts, according to Nancy Matthews, the faculty member who accompanied them. The students were chosen based on their own letters written about how their lives have been affected by the budget cuts.
Matthews said that Schwarzenegger complimented the students on getting involved and addressed any concerns they had. He also told them he would read some of the letters later that evening.
Matthews said the students did a “really tremendous job” and that lawmakers were impressed that students are taking the time to not only learn about the issues, but to be active.
“It’s always effective when we take the time to personally visit and not just sit back and complain,” she said.
Melissa Wheeler, a senior human development major, said she wanted to travel to Sacramento “to represent Cal State Long Beach, and I felt it would be a good opportunity to fight for higher education.”
She added that the issue is also important to her as a student aspiring to go to graduate school.
According to an e-mail from Teri Yamada, California Faculty Association chapter president, they also met with assembly members and legislative directors.
Matthews said they were not originally scheduled to meet with the governor but media coverage from their press conference on campus that morning caught the attention of the governor’s office. Schwarzenegger also told them that he was upset they had not tried to schedule the meeting.
While one goal of the event was to add a human face to the issue, the other goal, Matthews said, was to identify the solution to the budget problem. Assembly Bill 656 is a tax on oil that would be directed toward public higher education in the state. She added that California is the only oil-extracting state that does not tax oil.
Matthews discussed another bill recently introduced by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, called the Oil Industry Fair Share Act, that would direct approximately $1.5 billion in taxes to the state general fund.
Matthews said she does not disagree that other services need funding but said she supports AB 656 because it would restore the economy through an educated workforce that would in turn allow for additional funding to those services.
According to Matthews, Schwarzenegger said the problem with AB 656 is that senators and assembly members may have “competing interests” over the tax revenue.