As students, we stand on the steps of our university and look out at this world with uncertainty. We think times are hard now, but they will only get worse if we do not take action before we suffer the consequences of our indecision.
Students at UCLA, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley protested their board of regents’ recent decision to raise tuition fees by 32 percent. The California State University board of trustees has not made any comments about raising tuition fees, yet. Instead, the trustees are “hopeful” that Schwarzenegger will invest a total of $884 million into the CSUs.
The CSU budget proposal for 2010-11 originally requested $625 million, but on Wednesday, Nov. 18 they decided to ask for more. The board of trustees knows California will have a larger deficit next year.
This point was stated on Nov. 17, but how and why does it expect to receive more money than what was originally removed?
The budget summary packet states, “This budget assumes further that the following one-time reductions totaling $305 million will be restored,” because the governor’s veto message “specifically describes this reduction as one-time in nature.”
By nature, are politicians known as honest people? What will happen if the budget isn’t restored — another 30 percent in hiked tuition fees, more teacher layoffs, more salary cuts and furlough days?
When the board of trustees took action on the 24-page budget summary for the next academic year it had no comments or queries. In spite of the tremendous “assumptions,” the budget proposal was approved.
The first day of the two-day meeting was like walking into a class to discuss the readings and no one had read the material. The silence was deafening to my ears. Silence can speak more words than any lengthy filibuster. It can be heard louder than any bomb.
However, they returned the following day and had finally read the material. This was when they came up with the delusional idea to ask the state for more aid.
The students, on the other hand, are becoming comparable to a vocal bomb throughout California’s higher education system. The UCs lead the way with sit-ins, walk-outs and picketing rallies, but lets not forget the CSUs are in this as well.
Cal State Long Beach students are beginning to protest and the CSUs are planning a faculty facilitated walk-out on March 4. The support for protests is growing. Students have publicity from televised news media and major newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
Faculty, staff, parents, some legislators — and even President Barack Obama — are sympathetic to financial burdens imposed on California’s higher education and support alternative solutions. Alternative solutions mean not hiking student fees or implementing more layoffs.
The long-term solutions for all students is relief from the financial crisis and is only possible through united student efforts. Unifying is an idea we were taught at a young age when our parents and teachers worried we would be taken advantage of by others.
In grade school we learned about the “buddy system.” This is a simple ideology we need to reinforce, because when there is more than one of us our strength multiplies.
Now, we have learned that people of any age can be a victim. Our parents, our teachers and our futures have become victims because the board of trustees and the California Legislature are presently shaping our futures without our consent.
If we are going to shape our own futures, we need to unite and actively engage in the decisions.
In the words of Dylan Thomas, we must “not go gently into that good night,” but fight against these dark times and raise our voices to those silent people we entrust with our futures.
Tom Jacobson is a senior history major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.