Students protest in statewide Sacramento march

Campus club members head to state Capitol

Marching across the Tower Bridge in Sacramento, Calif., a wave of chants rippled through the crowd of thousands of protesters.

“The students united cannot be defeated.”

Sixteen Pierce College students from the Associated Students Organization and Students Organizing for Success travelled to the state Capitol on March 4 for the March in March, protesting budget cuts and advocating increased college funding.

The Pierce group met at the Pierce campus at 10 p.m. on March 3 where they boarded an ASO-funded charter bus that took them to the Capitol overnight.

The march began at 10 a.m. on Monday, beginning at Raley Field, crossing the Tower Bridge up to the steps of the Capitol where a rally was held.

PROTEST: California college students converge in Sacramento to participate in a march supporting easier access to higher education on Monday.

Wednesday

March 6

High: 57°

Low: 45°

Partly Cloudy

Around 5,000 people took part in the march, according Dr. Zachary Knorr, a professor at the University of California, Riverside.

The attendance was surprising to professor James McKeever, the faculty mentor for the trip, who thought the passing of Proposition 30 in the November elections would make students more apathetic.

- Ruben Garcia

Students Organizing for Success member

“I think the turnout is amazing,” McKeever said. “I thought it’d be a third of this.”

Also surprised with the attendance was SOS member Ruben Garcia, who travelled to Sacramento ahead of the bus.

“People are still interested in education,” Garcia said.

Rally

Despite the passing of Proposition 30, attendees, including professor McKeever, stressed the importance of continuing the fight to stop cuts and bring back lost funding.

“This is when it’s really more important to sit there and demonstrate that the students who voted for those things are still watching and still care about the issues,” McKeever said.

Though Proposition 30 passed, the price per unit has not gone down from $46, which McKeever said is an important issue to bring to the state government.

“Some people, even Jerry Brown, have made statements about how tuitions are still lower than the national average so we still have room to move up, and I think that’s the wrong way to look at it,” McKeever said. “I think we should be looking at $14 or $15 per unit, or even free actually.”

Former ASO president Ken Sherman was also on the trip, and he was also critical of the cost of community college.

[See MARCH, pg. 3]