Hundreds of students gathered at Cal State Long Beach’s upper quad Thursday to rally against budget cuts and ongoing tuition hikes.
The rally was part of a nationwide Occupy Movement that extended to other Cal State University and University of California campuses.
Students filled the upper quad waving fliers and signs at the noontime rally. Local band Coverlove kicked off the rally as the Students For Quality Education (SQE) hosted speakers and even participated in a flash mob.
Students at the rally were frustrated by the rising cost of higher education.
“We as students need to take a stand and decide what we want for our future,” freshman sociology major Erika Dulce said. “We cannot accept any more budget cuts. We cannot accept any more tuition raises. We simply cannot accept it. We have a voice and we have to let it be heard.”
SQE chapters from all CSU campuses are in Sacramento today protesting the decisions made by the CSU Board of Trustees and Chancellor Charles B. Reed. According to data collected by SQE, Reed and CSU executives were awarded a total of 607 salary raises from 2008-10. During that time, over 10,000 courses were cut and thousands of faculty jobs were lost.
“Today I arrived at 10:30 and saw lots of empty spots in the staff parking lot,” Chicano and Latino studies professor Luis Arroyo said. “Make the connection.”
Arroyo was one of six speakers SQE presented at the rally. The others included Associated Students Inc. Vice President Stephen Thomas and Dean of Students Jeff Klaus.
SQE would like to see Reed resign, as well as see more student and faculty representation on the BOT.
SQE would like to see many changes made to the CSU system to ease the financial burden on students, and Thursday’s rally was just a small step in their ongoing fight against “the one percent” of higher education.
There were also protests at Cal State campuses in Fullerton, Dominguez Hills, Northridge, Bakersfield and San Francisco and UC campuses at Davis, Santa Cruz and Berkeley.