Students march through campus

By: Mitchell Alan Parker

Posted: 4/26/07

"Fewer classes, higher fees. CSU is run by thieves!"

This was the cry students chanted as they marched around campus yesterday protesting a 10 percent fee increase currently in the state legislature.

A student, dressed up as California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed - donning a large cardboard cutout of the chancellor's head towering over him - yelled from beneath a large blue veil into a megaphone: "My name is Charles Reed! I love executive perks! I only get paid $300,000 a year! I will be raising your fees by 10 percent this fall!"

About 25 students joined the march, holding picket signs, passing out fliers and eventually stopping on the lawn across from the Event Center to hear students and members of the California Faculty Association speak about what they said is a corrupt CSU administration.

"I think it's really important," said Clement Guyot, a senior majoring in environmental biology, who stopped by to see the demonstration. "It shows freedom and possibility."

Guyot, who is a foreign exchange student from France, said that in his country, education is basically free.

"I would have to pay $600 a year," he said, "but that would be for health insurance."

Guyot eventually joined the march around campus, holding a picket sign.

"This is not my home," he said, "but this is my university and I want to participate."

Other students, who wandered over to the demonstration, also joined the marchers.

Jason Bustos, a junior majoring in civil engineering, donned a red armband in support of the protest.

"I'm taking out all these student loans," he said. "It's impacting me now. I'll be paying for it for a while. We need to do something about this."

As the march snaked through campus for nearly two hours, a couple of students were perplexed as to what it was all for.

"I wasn't aware of a fee increase," said Alan Stover, a junior majoring in business finance. "There's not enough people here to make a difference and I'll still come here next semester whether they raise fees or not. Ten percent isn't big enough."

Although Kevin Comer, a sophomore majoring in business administration management, is against the fee increase, he felt the demonstration wasn't enough.

"I don't think protests really help," he said. "This one is kind of small."

One member of the CFA - a union that represents the 23,000 lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches in the 23-campus CSU system - addressed the students, expressing her support for their fight.

"The CFA will back you in fighting these fees," said Persis Karim, a member of the CFA executive board and a professor of English and comparative literature, adding that "sometimes striking is the best weapon."

Karim was referring to the recent threat of a strike by the CFA that eventually lead to a contract agreement between it and the CSU after nearly two years of negotiations.

Following suit with the CFA's threat of job actions, Robert Gutierrez, an organizer of the event, who is a senior majoring in speech communications, said that if things don't change, a student walkout is likely in the fall.