Throughout the month of March, dissenters of the budget cuts will be gathering en masse to protest funding shortages in education.
March 4 will bring an array of events, including a teach-in on the De Anza College campus, a march to Cupertino City Hall, and a train of 10 buses ferrying students to San Francisco to march to the Civic Center.
Students wishing to attend the march in San Francisco will need to be in the main quad by 12:30 p.m. and sign a waiver, available at Students For Justice tables in the Main Quad in the days leading up to the event, as well as on the way to the buses. Some of the roughly 350 students already planning to attend the event will be driving to San Francisco in carpools. Anyone getting to the city outside of transport provided by the collaborative group of UC’s, CSU’s and community colleges will be responsible for themselves, said Cain Ramirez, who is helping to organize the event. His co-organizer on campus, Jose Romero, is organizing the local action.
The next event is a statewide march in San Francisco in front of the San Francisco Civic Center.
De Anza Associated Student Body Adviser John Cognetta ordered 10 buses to pick up De Anza students at 1 p.m. from De Anza College. The buses will go to City College of San Francisco City College Mission site. Students will march until 7 p.m., when they will meet the buses at the Bill Graham Civic Center.
De Anza’s participation in the march in Sacramento was cancelled due to an inability to get proper permits and liability waivers, which would have cost around $1 million. De Anza Restoring Education organizers were able to get proper permits, police compliance, and media coverage for the march in San Francisco.
According to Ramirez, President Brian Murphy and students from Mission College, San Jose City College, Ocean Side City College, City College of San Francisco Mission, The Filipino Community Center, UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State will join De Anza Students on the two-mile walk. K-12 and labor unions will also join the march. The late arrival at the Civic Center was scheduled to accommodate members of labor unions or students with busy schedules during the day, said Ramirez.
Speakers representing the colleges in attendance will be presenting their perspectives publically at the marches, and Joseph Certeza encourages protestors to arrive bearing signs promoting their cause. Volunteers bearing petitions to have a proposition known as the California Democracy Act on the November ballot will also be collecting signatures from protestors. The California Democracy Act, if ratified, would reduce the number of votes required to raise taxes in California in order to provide funds for the California budget. “It’s come to the point where education is a privilege, not a right,” said Ramirez, emphasizing the importance of political activism even over responsibilities like classes.
“It’s more important to march or join in local action. The march is not to tell UC regents or legislators off… There’s no point in talking to people who aren’t going to listen,” Ramirez said, insisting that the marches serve instead to reach out to the public. As for the local action, Certeza has similar goals. “Our purpose is to unite the community,” he said.
