Faced with the prospect of additional funding cuts for higher education, the California Faculty Association (CFA) has formed a Coalition to Save the CSU and organized events around the state as part of a multipronged effort to protect the 23-campus California State University system.
If the new cuts proposed by the governor survive the budget process, "CSU will have lost more than a billion dollars in just two years," says CFA President John Travis. "We need to stop these cuts, because we are already well on the way to dismantling our public higher education system."
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Students and faculty members came from CSU campuses in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills, Pomona, Northridge, San Bernardino and Fullerton to rally outside the office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in downtown Los Angeles.
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Currently, CSU is facing a $24 million cut from its current budget of $2.65 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1, and more cuts and mandatory enrollment limits could be coming when the governor issues his revised budget proposal in mid-May.
Although the proposed cuts are to be spread out over all 23 of the campuses, the net effect is equal to losing the entire operating budget for CSU's three largest campuses -- San Diego State, CSU-Long Beach and CSU-Northridge. Already individual campus administrators have reacted by proposing draconian cuts that include eliminating the College of Engineering at San Francisco State University and shutting down Sonoma State University for 10 days in the fall to save money.
Students can also expect higher fees next year. The governor has proposed a 10 percent fee increase for CSU undergraduates, raising their costs to about $2,800 in system-wide and campus fees.
In response, CFA is conducting a number of events at campuses around the state ranging from rallies to town hall meetings. "We are putting a face on the cuts," says CFA Vice President Lillian Taiz. "It's too easy to cut people when you don't know who you're dealing with."
Among the events was a lunchtime rally outside the governor's Los Angeles office on April 26, at which more than 3,000 faculty, students and staff protested the threatened cuts. The same day, about 1,000 students and faculty from San Diego State and UC-San Diego, as well as several community colleges, held a rally in San Diego.
Other events included an April 28 roundtable discussion at CSU-Sacramento, featuring state Treasurer Phil Angelides, columnist Arianna Huffington and CFA President John Travis; rallies among students and faculty at CSU-Long Beach and CSU-Fullerton April 29; and a town hall meeting at San Jose State on April 30.
At the same time, the newly formed Coalition to Save the CSU is trying to "increase awareness in the Legislature of the vital role that CSU plays in the state economy." CFA will also be enlisting coalition members to write letters of support, testify before the Legislature and actively participate in efforts to protect the university system.
The alliance of civic, academic, student and business leaders, which includes CTA, has agreed to help discourage further budget cuts.
Dale Martin
