ListenUniversity Students Continue To Rise Up Against Budget Cuts
November 3, 2009
Above: A fake coffin made by SDSU art students symbolizes cuts to higher education.
SAN DIEGO — Several hundred San Diego State University students rallied today against deep budget cuts to the California State University system. One part of the rally included a student walkout.
SDSU students took their message to the steps of university president Stephen Weber's office. They want smaller classes for all students, no new fees or fee increases, and an end to employee furloughs and layoffs.
A similar student walkout took place at UC San Diego two months ago.
Students say more student advocacy groups are forming in response to the situation.
Amanda Macias is with SDSU's student group Revolution 102. She says this kind of student activism hasn't taken place in years.
"We're paying so much for our education and getting so much less," Macias said. "As midterms come around I think it's finally setting in. I think now is a better time than ever."
College students are urging their classmates to support Assembly Bill 656, which would tax oil and natural gas companies. The money would help fund higher education.
Comments
Joshua // November 3, 2009 at 5:25 p.m. ― 2 weeks, 3 days ago
KPBS, like the entire NPR/PBS seems to be a fog of disinformation about the policies and programs at SDSU, as well as war and economic crises. KPBS is owned by SDSU. So much of pbs is made up of pandering to the upper middle class about food issues and pets.
But it's hard to ignore a demo of this size in a campus that has been traditionally pretty conservative, back to the late sixties.
Even tho legislative action is a dead end, as the government is a full blown executive committee and armed weapon of the rich, actions like these lead to lessons that can carry far beyond the original intent.
People are fighting back now, because they must fight back in order to live. Students throughout the US are rising up. UAW members finally rejected a Ford/UAW concession pact that the UAW bosses tried to foist on the before Fords announced a billion dollars in profits. Around the world, resistance movements grow, and not just the Taliban.
The task is to make sense of these upheavals, then deepen the actions.
The core issue of our time is the reality of endless war and inequality met by the potential of a mass, class-conscious, resistance to overcome, transform the sources of our problems in exploitation, racism, nationalism, irrationalism, and sexism, all working like a whirlwind.
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