The statewide Day of Action in protest of education budget cuts took place on campus Oct. 7.
De Anza Restoring Education teamed up with the Black Student Union to host a night of performances from 5-8 p.m.
The event was a culmination of a week’s worth of workshops, teach-ins, student forums and classroom presentations as well as Tent City.
The event consisted of performances ranging from poetry and spoken word pieces to cultural dances. Between performances members from various De Anza clubs spoke in the microphone to explain the purpose of the Day of Action to audience members.
DARE member and De Anza Associated Student Body Student Rights and Services Senator So Choi performed an untitled poem inspired by the events of the past week. “The poem was about apathy and inspiration,” she said. A lot of people have trouble finding the inspiration for writing poems. I found it really easy.”
BSU Secretary Samiha Sharif was happy with the event despite having a few difficulties with the planning. “I thought the event turned out good. We had a good turnout. Even though we had some people drop out last minute we still had a lot of good performances,” she said.
DARE and Senate members Ali Masood and Nevin Sarina, as well as DASB Senate President Ze-Kenny Li, explained the Measure E Parcel Tax campaign and the importance of registering to vote.
The Senate’s Student Rights and Services Committee was active in organizing the Day of Action, along with DARE and Students for Justice.
The members worked on phone banking for Measure E as well as tabling for various propositions on the Nov. 2 ballot.
BSU adviser McTate Strotman said that his club normally puts out a spoken word event called First Thursday every first Thursday of the month. The BSU decided to work with DARE because the members felt that the work that DARE was doing in fighting budget cuts and supporting Measure E was admirable.
“The Measure E Campaign is an important thing because it helps raise money for our schools,” said BSU Vice Chair Orit Mohamed. “Getting into classes has been really hard this year and the budget cuts have caused a lot of classes to be cut. By supporting Measure E we can help lower the time students spend on waitlists.”
Tabling for Measure E and propositions 23-26 will continue for the next few weeks. Students can also register to vote at tables in the Main Quad.