Hundreds of students stormed out of classes and staged a noontime rally Thursday at Sonoma State University to protest recent budget cuts and steep tuition fee hikes they say are eroding the quality of their education.
The rally in the main quad, attended by about 400 people, was part of a "day of action" for public education held on college and high school campuses across the state and nation and included demands for change that were issued to an SSU administrator in a face-to-face hallway meeting.
In Santa Rosa, 40 shivering teachers and others protested school budget cuts, standing in the frosty morning in front of Santa Rosa High School, even as their counterparts in Petaluma, Windsor and other Sonoma County school districts held similar protests.
"The budget cuts have impacted us horribly," said Aleena Conway, a 20-year-old history major. "They've taken away classes, majors are dwindling, we've lost a lot of lecturers and therefore have lost a lot of classes."
Ian Arnold, a first-year studio arts major at Sonoma State, said the effects of recent budget cuts are blatant. He said his two-unit beginning life drawing class has been decimated by the state's Furlough Fridays.
"It used to be a four-unit class," he said. "We only have class every Friday that's not a furlough day and with that, it went from 16 classes to 10.
He said his professor comes in on furloughed Fridays and teaches students, event though he doesn't get paid for it.
Thursday's rallies were generally peaceful, though there were reports of sporadic violence
. The rallies were organized by students and teacher and college faculty unions.
At Sonoma State and other California State University campuses, rallies were organized by the California Faculty Association and a group called Students for Quality Education, which has chapters in 19 of the state's 23 CSU campuses.
Andy Merrifield, a Sonoma State political science professor and president of the Sonoma Chapter of the California Faculty Association, said the cuts have already forced some students to delay graduation because they are not able to get the required classes.
He said this year students at Sonoma State took a 32 percent tuition fee hike, even as the breadth of course work diminishes.
"We usually offered about nine upper division political science classes and now we're at about five," he said.
The California Teachers Association dubbed their efforts, Stand Up for Schools, and participating teachers said they're trying to raise awareness about budget cuts.
"If I had my druthers we'd be out there, shutting down the street," Santa Rosa High School special education teacher Dave Robertson said, gesturing toward Mendocino Avenue as others ribbed him about the appetite for activism he developed at the University of California, Berkeley decades ago.
"Our country has so many problems right now," said Cathy Slack, who demonstrated with about 24 others at Monroe Elementary School, where her son is a student. "But it seems it's very short-sighted to cut the education budget when that's what we're counting on for the future of our country."
The teachers' union is hoping those made aware of the cuts to schools will write or call their legislators to oppose additional cuts.
Union representatives also are sponsoring an initiative to eliminate tax breaks for corporations, saving taxpayer funds that could go toward education.
Santa Rosa High School English teacher Annie Samuels also said she hopes those who noticed demonstrators will rethink school funding and the two-thirds majority needed to raise taxes.
"Teachers are like the frog in the pot," Mark Galipeau, president of the Cotati-Rohnert Park teachers union, said in an interview. "The pot just keeps getting heated up and heated up and heated up."
In Cotati-Rohnert Park, they are preparing to issue pink slips to 29 middle and high school teachers. That district expects to hire nine elementary teachers for the fall.
Santa Rosa, Sonoma County's largest district, cut $5.6 million from next year's budget, a move that increased class sizes, shortened the school year and cut spring sports in 2011.
Back at Sonoma State, demonstrators picketed in front of the school's administration offices at Salazar Hall. They handed Larry Schlereth, Sonoma State's chief financial officer, a list of demands "in defense of public education."
The students demanded, among other things, that efforts be made to make more classes available to graduating seniors who have had to postpone their graduation. Students also asked that students and faculty have greater say in the school's financial decisions.
Schlereth met with students in the hallway of Salazar Hall, sitting on a white plastic five gallon paint bucket.
After the meeting with demonstrators, Schlereth said he was sympathetic and that the financial crisis facing Sonoma State is "way bigger than us."
He said it was crucial for the students, the university and the public to support Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to restore the $305 million that was cut from the CSU system's 2009-10 budget.
"Many of these things," he said pointing to the student's list of demands, "would be alleviated if that money came back."
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