The Signal

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of www.righttolearnCA.org

Media Credit: Courtesy of www.righttolearnCA.org

Media Credit: Courtesy of www.righttolearnCA.org Students protest from Raley Field to the state capitol

Voices and speeches could be heard a mile away from the steps of Capitol Hill as it was filled with students, faculty and supporters of the California State University system.

All 23 CSU campuses, as well as several University of California campuses and community colleges, marched from Raley Field to Capitol Hill this past Monday, April 21, as they attempted to persuade the legislature and Governor Schwarzenneger to not raise tuition fees or cut any more money from the CSU budget.

CSU Stanislaus organized a bus trip with 40 spots available for any students who wished to go.

"We spent about three months planning this trip to Sacramento," said Andrew Janz, president of Associated Students, Inc.

"We had about 30 to 35 students travel on the bus, a few other students met up with us in Sacramento, and about four to five faculty members went with us as well, including California Faculty Association chapter president Dr. Steven Filling," said Janz.

Students left CSU Stanislaus at 6:45 a.m. and arrived at Raley Field at 9 a.m. Between 1,000 and 3,000 students attended the march, representing every single CSU in California.

"It has been the biggest turnout I have ever seen," Janz said.

Students had a chance to speak with legislators about the proposed budget cuts and how it will affect their education. It was a surprise for students when California Lt. Gov. demonstrated student support by joining them in the march, giving them fantastic media attention.

"We spoke with five or six representatives from the legislature such as Sen. Jeff Denham, Tom Berryhill and Mike Machado," said Janz.

"We got a chance to communicate our message to them, which is if you cut our budget, we'll vote you out."

Janz said that the majority in support of the budget cuts come from the Republican party in Congress.

"We don't want to see fee increases every year," said Janz. "We should spend the same amount of money for our education as we do, for example, on federal prisons."

Janz commented that a large amount of students held protest signs.

"The march was really well organized and it was an awesome sight. You could see at least a mile long crowd of students," said Janz.

The march was a once in a life time memory for CSU Stanislaus students Kristina Rather and Bailey Mobley, who are running for vice president internal of ASI.

"There was a lot of encouragement from the people in the march," said Rather. "We had a lot of support about how people were so proud of us and it was an inspiration that you can make an impact on."

Mobley was impressed by how many CSU campuses participated in the event.

"It was exciting," said Mobley. "I liked representing the student voice, it was really cool that even though so many of us students came from separate campuses, we all came together to speak as one voice."

Janz feels confident about getting the CSU message across in receive full-funding. The May revise of the budget cut should be out in a couple of weeks, but still needs to be reviewed over in terms of the revenue.

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