By Khalida Sarwari and Allecia Vermillion
A small group of students at San Jose State University marched through the campus this afternoon in a student-organized demonstration against the state’s $584 million budget cut to the California State University system.
Addressing a crowd of about 75 students, Liz Cara, a professor in occupational therapy, encouraged the crowd to advocate for their right to public education as residents of the state.
Cara, who is also president of the California Faculty Association, bemoaned “chronic underfunding” from the state that has resulted in nearly 40,000 students being denied admission at CSU schools.
“We’re turning away people who are qualified and that’s a bad thing,” Cara said. “With the increase in fees, many people can’t afford CSUs anymore.”
In a demonstration organized by Students for Quality Education, students held signs and placards stating “When the CSU budgets are cut, students bleed” and encouraged fellow students to join the march around the campus chanting, “Students united will not be divided!”
The march culminated with the deliverance of about 1,600 complaint letters from students to the office of the provost.
Students for Quality Education president Julian Rosenberg said some of the letters contained heartbreaking stories. He said in one letter, a student explained that she had to wait an entire year to take a class that would have served as a prerequisite for four other classes. The result,
Rosenberg said, is that students cannot graduate on time if they are not able to take the classes they need.
“It’s becoming too much to bear,” Rosenberg said.
Herlinda Aguirre, a sophomore, held a sign warning “‘diz iz wuht boodget kuts dooze tew stoodentz.”
Aguirre said she was nearly dropped from an English class she needed.
“I want students to be aware that you have some sort of opinion here and if you voice it they will hear you, someway, somehow,” Aguirre said.
On Aug. 20, the school announced a plan to trim almost 20 percent of its student body by next fall and use furloughs to avoid layoffs this year.
University president Jon Whitmore worked with deans, the faculty senate, unions and others to determine how the university would cover the $42 million shortfall in state support, and an additional $2 million in increased utility and benefits costs.
The state’s budget crisis means dramatically reduced funding for its higher education systems. Whitmore has said that the university will weather these lean times by maintaining quality of education over quantity.
Enrollment this fall has been reduced by 3,000 students, and the school will trim the student body by another 2,500 by fall 2010, he said.
This reduction accounts for nearly 20 percent of the university’s student body, which numbered almost 33,000 this time last year. The school’s top priority is to keep students progressing toward on-time graduations despite fewer class sections, Whitmore said.
Employees have also approved the university’s first-ever furloughs, which began Aug. 10, he said. University staff must take 24 furlough days, and faculty will take up to 18.
However, the school must do without an estimated 200 employees who operate on year-to-year contracts, said San Jose State spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris. Exact numbers will depend on final class enrollments.
Furloughs alone will save the university $19 million, and bridge 43 percent of its shortfall. The one-year measure “has saved dozens, perhaps hundreds of jobs,” Whitmore said.
It also saves the school from having to lay off any of its permanent full time employees, at least for now.
The university must deal with its new fiscal reality by making permanent cuts to the personnel budget next year, Whitmore said.
The student body is also bearing a large share of the funding gap. Fees have increased $900 per student, bringing the school an extra $18 million, or 41 percent of the budget shortfall.
For the first time in the school’s history, students and parents are paying in more money than the state, Whitmore said.
The remainder of the money will come from budget cuts within the university.
Many programs and priorities are being shelved in these lean times, but the school is still moving forward with large-scale sustainability and information technology programs.
Whitmore said both of these efforts will help save money. San Jose State has hired its first chief information officer, whom Whitmore said has already “found ways to save hundreds of thousands of dollars while improving services.”
The Students for Quality Education have planned another rally for Sept. 22 in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.