When you hear of people sleeping on the cold, hard ground outside, you may think of people who have given up all hope in the world, bumming around and trying their best to maintain their own lives. The De Anza College students sleeping on campus were the exact opposite. The club De Anza Restoring Education held a week-long rally to inform students of the budget cuts and multiple measures, sleeping in tents and getting the word out before the voting polls open.
Tent City, the large spectacle which took place from Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 in De Anza’s Main Quad did not serve as a massive distraction to students, but a large and elaborate information desk for the propositions and measures that could help save Californian schools from further financial cuts.
DARE’s goal is to educate students about what is happening financially with education. Generally, when voters encounter an unknown issue on the ballot, they vote blindly, possibly swaying the majority.
“We want to educate students about budget cuts and solutions,” said student senator Ali Masood, 19, political science major and DARE representative.
DARE is getting students familiar with a few of the propositions and measures on the bill that affect Californian education, De Anza and Foothill College especially. One of the many measures DARE is promoting is Measure E, a proposed parcel tax proposed by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District to help add more classes at Foothill and De Anza.
What’s different about Tent City is its effectiveness. There are always quiet activists lining the college walkways, hoping for you to pass them on the way to class so they can make an attack, handing you a flier and almost forcing you to give them your e-mail so they can send you more information on what they’re not-so-passionately fighting for. Tent City has students camping out on school grounds for something they believe in: education.
“I wanted to do something with high visibility to let people know that there are students protesting budget cuts,” said 21-year-old English major Nevin Sarina.
The tents grab the curiosity of passersby and pull them to find out more information. The students band together to form an alliance to help the large movement of students get the message of unity across, showing students that people are fighting for something and they can join the cause as well.
“It attracts a lot of attention. People come up and ask us why we’re in tents and we tell them about the budget cuts and different solutions,” said Masood. “We get to have fun, we get to build a community, get to know each other; that way, we kind of build a movement at the same time.”
“I think it’s a good chance for all of the active people on campus to meet up and work together on one issue,” said Sarina. “A lot of the times clubs are doing their own stuff, but we had people from all kinds of clubs here … I don’t think there are events like that that happen that often. It’s nice to build a community.”
By sleeping in De Anza’s main quad, students have educated and informed themselves of California’s situation via interaction with other Tent City residents.
“Yes, I think it’s really effective because I wouldn’t have known about the issues without Tent City being there,” said a 24-year-old De Anza student. “I think a peaceful protest is a good way to get your voice out there.”
Tent City isn’t an annoying protest; it is a campus unifying action that helps De Anza students learn and make the right choices to help better the campus in the future.
And even if you do find it annoying, is it that hard to walk around?
