By Gilbert Gutierrez III
Published: September 29, 2009
Categorized in | Campus News, News, Video
By Gilbert Gutierrez III
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Students, faculty, alumni and staff joined forces to shout in anger and passion about the CSU’s economic turmoil that has embraced us all.
James Goebel, philosophy major marches in protest against the budget cuts and furlough days on campus at CSUF in Fullerton, Calif, on Sept. 29 2009. Photo by John Wayne Maioriello/Daily Titan Staff Photographer
Tuesday at Cal State Fullerton just before noon, the group began it’s march and tore through the Titan Student Union, Becker Amphitheatre, Pollak Library, Quad and along Nutwood Avenue to protest student fee increases, faculty furloughs and enrollment reductions.
President Milton Gordon witnessed the protest when the pack traveled to Nutwood Avenue.
“The students have a great opportunity to protest, and I agree with them. I think they should. I too disagree with the way the state has acted, but you know we were all cut $584 million, and for this campus alone it’s going to be reduced over $38 million,” he said.
Students inside the Humanities-Social Sciences building stood out on the balcony to look down as the flock ended their tour to rally and show their collective support.
Lauren Vondracek, senior in women’s studies, shouted to the crowd “We need to fight back for the faculty that teaches us.” The crowd erupted with clapping and cheers. “We are tired of having fee increases and faculty cuts,” Vondracek said. “We are fighting for students rights as well as those that cannot afford to go to school because of fee increases.”
The crowd came together at noon to march around the Quad and yelled at the top of their lungs to get the attention of the students and faculty on break: “Hell no, furloughs! Hell no, furloughs!”, “No cuts, no fees, education should be free!” and “They say cutbacks, we say fight back!”
“Today it’s kind of a very impromptu campaign to get the message out that students, faculty, staff, everyone, we are sick and tired of being the open wallet to the state’s mismanagement and the CSU’s mismanagement,” professor of politics, administration and justice Jarret Lovell said.
“(Students) have got to get involved,” he added. “There’s a line over by the TSU, it’s called the free money line, that ASI is putting out. You want your free money you’ve got to come here and fight for what’s yours. If they think that people are just going to hand out free money, they’ve got another thing coming to them. People in power don’t give things away, they have to be taken; and for too long faculty, students, staff have been willing to sacrifice for higher education, and we’re not getting anything in return. How do you pay 32 percent more in student fees, and get 10 percent less professors, less classes, it doesn’t make sense.”
At 12:15 p.m. after yelling out their chants to the cars passing by, which gained supportive courtesy honks, the demonstration marched down the Titan Walk.
In a line, the group entered the TSU lobby to the surprise of the students in the lounge area. TSU lobby-employees did not wish to comment about the protesters’ disturbance.
Immediately after, the congregation took the stage of the Becker Amphitheatre where the Associated Students Inc. was holding its fall fashion show.
Joe Lopez, ASI Vice President, said that he is glad to see a group come together at CSUF, but there’s nothing in the works as far as a collaboration with the student activists. He would be pleased if the students used ASI’s open door policy to express their grievances.
The crowd then quietly moved through the Pollak Library, but their numbers clogged the entrance and exit security gates. Students stopped working to stare as the crowd continued its protest.
Professor Mougo Nyaggah, Chapter President of the California Faculty Association, said, “CFA is joining the students here who are protesting the tuition increases. It went up 32 percent this year, and that will keep off very many students from accessing a university education,” Nyaggah said. “For every one dollar the state invests in educating a student, they stand to get $4.41 down the road in revenue and taxes generated by that person in the future. So it’s a good investment to put money in to educating students in California. And it is important to keep the access available to the students, and this cannot be done by continued increases of the fees for the students.”
Students protest on the Cal State Fullerton side of Nutwood Ave. Photo by John Wayne Maioriello/Daily Titan Staff Photographer
Nyaggah said that the most important thing is for the people who are concerned about the budget crisis to tell the state, “not to balance the budget on the backs of the students.”
Despite some of the protestors dwindling away after an hour, dozens stayed to spread the word throughout the day.
Psychology major Jamie Lynne Hunt said that her father was recently released from CSUF after 15 years of service. “He’s not exactly fired, but his job is placed on the back-burner for now,” she said.
The group also has a demonstration planned for Oct. 13.
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19 Responses to “Students Protest (audio and video interviews)”
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hah! Im in the video! fight the man!
Here’s a grievance for the ASI, stop wasting students money on hot dogs…
ASI may have a bigger role in this as we soon will find out. Gordon can sell his mother’s golden toilet and save 5 years of classes.
maybe if students take more of an active role at their school, they would be more informed about what is going on and asi wouldnt have to spend money on hot dogs to get people involved!
If the faculty were really in support of student fee increases then why hasn’t the California Faculty Associaton (CFA) ever taken a stance on student fee increases? THEY HAVE NEVER DONE THIS. It is only when the faculty union feels threatened that they decide to leverage and manipulate the student voice. I hope you all open your eyes and realize what is going on with the bigger picture. These harsh conditions are not the fault of CSUF or the Administration or the CSU. All of these decisions start in Sacramento. So instead of creating a mutiny against the admin why don’t you all work together…faculty, staff, students and administrators. Also, can we be civil and not make ignorant, misinformed comments please? Seek the facts or risk becoming a blabbering fool with no credibility, therefore halting your movement before it even starts.
And the ASI hot dogs comments..really? Have you lowered your mentality that far that you’re going to complain about ASI actually trying to engage the student body by feeding them and also trying to inform them at the same time. Can anyone do anything right for you people?
Go figure – when you’re upset about your education being interrupted by furlough days, it only seems logical to interrupt the studying of other students with your protest against it.
Bollocks. Another angry group of protesters wasting their time marching around to throw a temper-tantrum instead of actually showing up to vote down the major budget expenditures in Sacramento and vote out the corrupted state politicians.
If our young people represent the future of America, I suppose I should probably change my major to Chinese.
I really want to know why “The Elephant in the Room” thinks protesting on campus is going to do anything. Everyone is upset over the state of things. Being louder about it and yelling to the people that feel the same way as you isn’t going to make things better. Be courageous! Hold a protest in front of your local legislator’s office! That’s going to be a lot more effective in getting your point across and probably get more publicity.
In regards to the ASI hot dog comment: what do you want your money spent on?! You don’t want it to go to food to feed you so that you have lunch? If you don’t like how they’re spending your money, then go tell them! You have no right to sit here and bitch and moan unless you are going to do something about it!
Bend over and accept all those free ASI hotdogs you OC swine!!
BRAVO! BRAVO!
So where the hell is the money that was cut from the CSU budget supposed to come from? Every single part of California is broke right now so I don’t seen how the state is going to pull money out of its ass for just the universities. These protests are pointless.
Is CSUF Bankrupt???
The state is bankrupt! Since the state is in a budget crisis, there has been cuts in funding to education. In order to make up for the shortfall, tuition has been increased.
BUDGET CRISIS is not a phrase that answers all my questions or smooths everything over. Raise tuition, cuts everywhere you have to be a real complacent jerk to be satisfied/comfortable with these changes in our education.
People who think that there’s nothing we can do are so hopeless. “It’s the state’s problem… we have to make the most of a bad time.” Where did the 10% from the budget cuts go? Do you honestly think the admin is doing their best to save our classes and professors? No. There is definitely mismanagement going on within our own administration. Milton Gordon wants you to believe that it’s only a state issue so you just shut up and take it; are you going to keep bending over?
People need to look through the budget and suggest what needs to be cut. Protest for transparency. But please, don’t blindly believe that CSU is evil for not wanting to run a debt that will only hurt students more than any tuition increase.
I hate to get political, but there is a simple solution to all our problems. PULL OUT of Iraq. We’ll get our money back and this nightmare will be all over. This is precisely why I didn’t vote.
you know, i really want to say something, but what? i’m pissed about the tuition increase. i’m pissed that some of the classes i wanted to take were cut. i’m pissed that my professors, many of which work their butts off, are taking a pay cut and i’m pissed that i have to pay MORE MONEY and i’m getting LESS EDUCATION!
it’s ridiculous. but i honestly dont know how we can fix it. it’s easy to point the finger and say, we need to stop this, we need to do that, but in reality, it takes a lot more than pointing fingers to accomplish something. anyway, i’ll be at the next rally, and the one after that, and the one after that. and i write my congressman in complaint. and i will stand up and shout out how angry we all are about all this crap, and maybe, just maybe, someone will listen and things will change.
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Thank you it is a nice article with very nice informations.