Through testimony, students and faculty showed a powerful commitment to restoring the California State University system despite massive budget cuts.
Three professors and two administrators discussed the state of the university and solutions for the education crisis at the Solidarity Symposium on March 2.
“What are we willing to lose in order to gain?” said Jose Moreno, professor of Chicano and Latino studies.
Cal State Long Beach is making cuts based on getting students through the university system, instead of keeping programs and classes that aren’t required to graduate, they cut them.
The decision-makers at the meetings are predominantly white, Moreno said.
“They tell us, ‘We value diversity, but we will not make decisions with you,'” Moreno said.
Underrepresented groups, such as Latinos and blacks, have historically not been welcomed to school institutions, according to Clarissa Rojas, professor of Chicano and Latino studies.
President of the African Student Union Jasmyn Culpepper said she had to pick up another job and pay for school through a payment plan this semester. After the $33 initiation fee and a lowered first-month payment, she will spend $750 for the next four months.
Rosa Madrigal, a senior political science major, was laid off one year ago and has not found a job because the courses for her major are at odd times of the day.
“I have a constant fear,” she said. “What’s going to happen when my student loans run out and I can’t pay my rent?”
California spends the most money on prisons nationwide, yet it is 48th in education, Rojas said.
“They want us as workers in prisons,” Rojas said.
A major theme at the symposium was the importance of community and speaking out as a student body.
Elizabeth Sosa was the first student to speak to the panelists. She took a deep breath to calm her emotions, but her lip still quivered as she began to speak.
“A lot of people are comfortable, but I know a lot of people living in cars,” she said. “Who has time to read a book when your boss is telling you, ‘You need to work.'”
She explained how a Kenyan motivated her to go to college, and how a Vietnamese woman showed her how to get scholarships.
“In Chicano, it’s not just I, I, I, it’s me and mi hermano,” she said.
Moreno warns that students who ask, “What can we do?” are giving over their power by doing what others tell them to do.
“You are all growing into positions of responsibility,” said Mary Stephens, vice president of administration and finance. “You can encourage your friends and family that they too can make the same accomplishment.”