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Students Occupy college campus
ELAC students camp out on campus to protest rising costs and budget cuts
Eduardo Razo / Roundup
With education cutbacks some students at East Los Angeles College (ELAC), one of the nine schools in the Los Angeles Community College District, have formed Occupy ELAC.
For the last four weeks students have been occupying a space that is known as Tent City by the Occupiers, which is between the Administrations Building and the Student Services Building. The students are protesting to try and lower the cost of education and stop the budget cuts.
The Pierce College Associated Students Organization (ASO) president wasn’t in favor of the Occupy movement at ELAC.
“For Pierce I am not so sure it will work,” said Ruiz. “The whole Occupy movement is getting chaotic … and rather than associating ourselves with that we rather get appointments with people who we can talk about the budget.”
ASO Advisor Brad Saenz isn’t in favor of the protest at ELAC either.
“They shouldn’t protest the budget issues because that’s not set by the school; they should protest course offering because the school controls that,” said Saenz.
The Occupiers have until Jan. 1, when the area that they are located will no longer be safe because of the construction going on behind them. Also the students are legally bound to stay in that area until the set date, but after that the school can call the police and have them removed.
“I have been heavily involved in student activism ever since I got to East Los Angeles College,” said Mike Sanchez, 22, communication studies major. “What we are doing here encompasses far beyond what a student is … funding is crucial to a student’s success because services and programs do get cut which has an adverse effect on student transfer.”
The first week was a challenge for the occupiers as due to the rain. They had to scramble to add wood and cardboard under their tents. However, with the rain out of the way they spread their cause by handing out flyers to students and inviting classes to Tent City to explain their cause.
“The toughest part has been not being home of course,” said Luz Juan, 22, a political science major who has been at Occupy ELAC from day one which was Oct. 31. “Most of the administration here on campus has been pro because it’s a student movement.”
The Occupy ELAC movement is an off shoot of the national movement in which large groups of protestors have camped out in downtown areas across the country claiming to represent 99 percent of Americans.
“It’s been a little rough I am not going to lie it’s been pretty rough,” said Keanujr Paar, 19, engineering major, who has been camped at the Occupy ELAC location for the last three weeks. “We have a few lobbyist and we were able to get Calif. State Senator Ed Hernandez down here and gave us his input, so I consider that a victory.”
It hasn’t been all about protesting during the four week occupy movement at ELAC.
Students have had to manage with rationing their food, which is provided by parents and private donations, having a tent with electricity to study and learning to live together with other students.
“The time that we’ve been here we’ve developed certain relationships that feels like a community,” said Mike Sanchez. “Even though everyone has their own tent there is a familiar feeling there might have been people you might have not known in the past, but all of a sudden you emerge into this new sub-culture.”
