Budget concerns call for a march in March

By Lauren Tyler
FEATURES EDITOR

City College students, anxious about the new California budget which has left the school with a nearly $8 million budget gap, are planning a walkout of solidarity with San Francisco State students tomorrow to protest cuts which will significantly reduce the summer credit session.

A larger, state-wide protest is scheduled for March 16 in Sacramento.

Like all California public schools, “City College doesn’t have enough money to pay the colleges for the enrollment they’ve acquired, “ Peter Goldstein, vice chancellor of finance, said. As a result, he said, the college will have to cut summer session credit classes by 20 percent.

The effect on faculty and staff is also significant. Fringe and employee benefits, along with merit increases or raises, translate into a nearly $5 million deficit for City College’s approximate $200 million budget, Goldstein said. The budget also eliminated the cost of living adjustment for school employees, which is a $1.1 million dollar loss.

The 2008-2009 state budget was released only three weeks ago, several months late, to finish the remaining four months of the fiscal year. The 2009-2010 budget was also released at the same time, unusually early.

“There are two pieces to that puzzle; one is less money is coming in, the other is costs are going up,” Goldstein said.

Solutions developed by the college administration to cope with the shortcomings include cutting the summer session, not filling vacant and classified administrative positions and looking for more grants, which have provided millions of dollars in previous years, according to Griffin.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s federal budget has allocated approximately $54 billion nationwide to compensate for individual state budget cuts, Griffin said.

“The intention of the federal money is to back fill those cuts,” he said. “For California, we can expect to get a little bit more than $5 billion. It has not been determined how that money will be spent, throughout the state’s budget deficits.”

To secure some of that $5 billion, Chancellor Griffin and board of trustee member Anita Grier traveled to Washington last month to advocate for extra funding for public education in California.

Chancellor Griffin acknowledged the trip to Washington is not enough to compensate for the budget cuts. He is hoping for a large turnout at next week’s protest march in Sacramento.

“Now we have to go to the state level,” said Griffin. “We have to go to the march in Sacramento. We have to speak with our representatives.”
Some college students, many of them organized by San Francisco State’s Student Unity and Power (SUP), say the march to Sacramento is “purely symbolic.”

They are hoping for a large turnout of SF State and City College students at the rally on March 12 at 1 p.m. at Ram Plaza, where City College students will join students who have marched from San Francisco State.

The Sacramento march is “little more than a photo (opportunity),” according to a pamphlet being distributed by SUP.

“We are calling for a walkout to begin a process of dialogue with City College students,” SFSU student Alex Mendoza, 24, said. “This is a jumping-off point for something that can escalate.”

“The idea is to have a more forward and militant approach,” said City College student Abel Mejia, 19. “We want to be confrontational in a disciplined, organized way.”

“We need to create a solidarity. This is the key strategy,” Mendoza said.

“The budget cuts are still felt whether you’re at City or State or a U.C. All those labels are just a way to divide the students,” Mejia said.

For more information about the walkout E-mail supccsf@gmail.com.