NEWS RELEASE FROM
STUDENTS FOR QUALITY EDUCATION
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For Release on November 7, 2012
For more information about the Northern Cal events, see the names with the events listed below.
For more information about students at the Trustees meeting, call Carol Linton 323-346-8810 or Ojaala Ahmad 714-721-5362
Cal. State U. Trustees meet next week;
They plan to impose more student fee increases
• Students on Northern Cal campuses will hold protest actions this week
• Students at Southern Cal will protest at the Trustees meeting next week
The California State University Board of Trustees indicate it will take action on more student fee increases at their meetings next Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 13 & 14, according to the agenda released to the public today.
The agenda shows that however the vote on Proposition 30 turns out on Election Day, the Trustees still want to increase fees.
The across-the-board fees have been unpopular with the public and legislators, so the Trustees are taking another tactic to charge students more in the name of “modifying” students “behavior” claiming that students don’t try hard enough to graduate from one of the 23 CSU campuses.
The new fees will punish students who take too long to graduate, who rack up more units than their majors ostensibly require, or want to focus on more than one field with double majors or minors, along with other “behaviors.”
At the last CSU Trustees meeting, outgoing Chancellor Charles Reed said students are “gaming the system” and staying in school too long and they are taking up space. He offered no proof that this is a real problem.
In a flyer being distributed on campuses, Students for Quality Education says that students are the ones getting gamed when class sections are cut and not offered often enough. Now, the Trustees plan to punish students for not taking those classes on time.
There are a lot of reasons students need more time to get to graduation and the events listed below will invite students to tell their stories.
Also, Students for Quality Education is collecting surveys of students about the actual obstacles to graduating they are facing. SQE will bring surveys to the Trustees to show them how their policies punish students and don’t solve the actual obstacles.
The survey is at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSUGradObstacles
SQE thinks the Trustees should adopt policies that help students graduate; not fees that punish students who are struggling to reach graduation.
For example, more academic counseling can help students know exactly what classes to take and when to take them. Another need is a commitment to open up more sections of a course when there is not enough room for all the students who must take it.
These exorbitant fees will only mean students run up more debt and work more hours, meaning the problem only gets worse and a lot of students will drop out.
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The CSU Trustees agenda for their meeting on Nov. 13-14 is at http://www.calstate.edu/bot/agendas/
You can read about the fee increases by clicking on Committee on Finance and in the PDF going to “Joint ED POL_FIN 1_1112”
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Fresno State Speak Out! Against the New Student Fees
Wednesday, November 7, Fresno State U.
11:00-2:00 Tabling at Maple Mall/ Free Speech Tabling area
2:00 Speak Out! And Procession
For more information call Rebecca Asami 559-790-5670
• Students will gather petitions/surveys to encourage the CSU Board of Trustees and Chancellor Reed to not pass these new student fees. We will also use the info gathered to ask Fresno State President Welty to voice our opinion at the meeting next week. At the Speak Out! we will have a mural for students to paint on as a way to express how they will be affected. At 2:00pm there will be a mic check for students to Speak Out! against the fees. Then a delegation will march to the president’s office to meet with him and encourage him to voice our opinion against these fees.
No “Pay Up, or Drop Out” Fees! Teach-In
Thursday, November 8 at Sacramento State
Noon to 2:00 pm at the University Union Delta Suite
For more information call Erica Zamora (559)836-3607 or Yeimi Lopez(916)896-9077
• Teach in about the three proposed fees by the CSU Board of Trustees that will be voted on November 13th at 3:30pm. We hope to get the word out to the members of the Board of tTustees who don’t have a clear understanding of what the fees would do to CSU students. We hope to consolidate support from all Sacramento state students, faculty and our local and statewide student representatives.
• Banners, students writing messages about more fees, speakers starting at 12:15. Speakers include students affected by the fees and representatives of campus groups.
Stop student fee extortion!
Thursday, November 8 at CSU East Bay
Noon to 2:00 pm at the Agora Stage
For more information call Justin Blea (310) 880-1186
• Teach-In on 3 proposed fees which blame students for a broken CSU system. Information blitz with speakers, interactive student-debt oriented 3-D displays, open mic for students to tell their stories
Speak Out against New Fees!
Thursday November 8at San Jose State U.
11:30 am to 1 pm in the Art Quad across of the Student Union
For more information contact Herlinda Aguirre 909-287-4867
• Speak Out is an action to give students a venue to speak against new fees. The new proposed fees are the Super Senior Fee, Course Repeat Fee, and Third Tier Fee. The CSU chancellor stated the students are the reason why other students are struggling because they are “abusing and gaming the system” However, this speak out is to allow people to hear the true reasons why students are taking more than 4 years to graduate. Students will have picket signs and noise-makers.
No Fee November
Thursday November 8 at San Francisco State
11-1 at Malcolm X Plaza
12:30 Teach-In on the CSU
For more information call Marcela Pimentel (562) 201-9759
• Students will be signing surveys, playing games like the “Rack Up Your Debt” Game, See the Tuition increase chart, and participate in t-shirt making. The activities will be followed by a teach-in at 12:30pm that will focus on the power structure of the CSU.
Rally and Speakout Against Fees
Tuesday, November 13, CSU Monterey Bay
3pm Rally Starts at the Library Plaza (by Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library)
4pm March through campus
For more information call Jessica Stroh 209-740-1654
• We will rally while the Trustees are meeting on the new fees in Long Beach. At the rally we will have speeches and drumming. Then we will be chanting and marching.