SSU STUDENTS GATHER TO RAISE AWARENESS OF CUTS, FEE HIKES

Budgets are being slashed. Classes are filled to bursting and there are fewer of them. And it's costing more.

California State University trustees on Wednesday raised fees by 9 percent, or $498 a year.

And at Sonoma State University, students were mad that more students aren't mad.

"This is the best we can do?" said Devin Masterson, a junior, pointing at a small knot of students who had gathered on campus to protest the CSU action.

"Kids here, their parents pay their bills. I pay my own and I'm pissed off," Masterson said.

"I'm frustrated," agreed sophomore Tomio Endo. "There's still a degree of apathy on campus." Nearby, a few canopy tents had been erected on the lawn near Stevenson Hall. From 20 to 50 students were expected to remain overnight in what was billed as a 24-hour campout to call attention to conditions at the university.

The small turnout Wednesday was partly because students who wanted to participate had been urged not to miss class, said Kia Kolderup-Lane, a senior who helped organize the event.

Other protest organizers noted that student concerns had already led university administrators to alter a policy capping the number of credits students could take each semester at 16. Tuesday night, SSU Provost Andrew Rogerson announced that the cap would be raised to 18.

"That was a victory," said Marissa Brogden, a junior.

Then she went to help start a pre-arranged "dialogue" between students and Rogerson.

The provost, in his first year at SSU, sat in the middle of a circle of about 20 students who tossed questions at him about how the 18-credit limit would work, administrators' salaries and why money could be found to build the $120 million Green Music Center, but not to pay additional faculty for more classes.

"I'm so glad to see you out here. It's better than apathy, but remember where to direct your effort," he said. "It's the Legislature that's not giving us the money."