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Sophomore Camden Ramsay fills out a survey during a budget protest Wednesday at Sonoma State University. CHRISTOPHER CHUNG/PD
By SAM SCOTT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Daniella Di Pol, a fifth-year senior at Sonoma State University, is closing in on graduation. But despite her impending exit, she’s fired up about fighting another round of cuts facing the state’s public universities.
She and a small cast of supporters set up tents in the middle of SSU’s campus Wednesday, joining a Day of Action at schools across California to protest major cuts slated to soon hit higher education.
“I don’t want this for my brother,” said Di Pol, president of Students for Quality Education. “I don’t want this for my own children.”
The protests were focused on $500 million in proposed budget cuts facing the California State University system, an 18 percent reduction. The University of California system is facing a similarly stark reduction.
SSU’s share of the pain is estimated at $7.5 million, but the school’s loss could be double that amount if Californians don’t vote to extend certain taxes in June, assuming they get the chance to, SSU officials said.
For SSU students, it’s just another round of bad news. In November, the California State University Board of Trustees approved a 15 percent tuition hike, the latest in a string of annual increases.
Natalie Gray, a sophomore English major, stopped by the protest, picking up a pin saying “The CSU is the Solution.” Many students don’t feel there’s a point to protesting, she said of the small showing. But she said it was worth the effort.
“If they don’t know we’re upset, they’re not going to change it,” she said.
Numerous students, staff and faculty cited concerns that $11 million in budget cuts at SSU over the past five years have made it more difficult for students to graduate on time and get the classes they need.
It’s difficult to find statistics to bear that out, however. SSU couldn’t immediately supply data on the changes to the number of classes offered in the past several years. But the student/faculty ratio last fall was 22.7, as low as its been since fall 2007. The average class size was 28.1, also a three-year low. Enrollment has dropped slightly from 2007, from 7,977 to 7,585 in 2010.
And, this spring, the average student is carrying 13.79 units, close to the 15 units that comprises a full load. At that average, a student would be about 10 credits short of graduating after four years.
“It’s extremely unusual for almost every student to be almost taking a full load,” said Marilyn Sargent, SSU’s director of institutional research. “They couldn’t have done that if the course weren’t available.”
Still there has been a drop in the number of faculty members. In fall 2010, the school had the equivalent of nearly 335 full-time faculty, a 6 percent drop since the peak of 2008.
So far many students have been able to navigate the reductions in budget and staffing by taking classes when they might otherwise have chosen not to, such as in the early morning or on Friday, said Susan Kashack, SSU’s associate vice president for marketing and communication
But going forward, cuts will prove harder to compensate for, she said. Regardless of whether the cuts mean a loss of $7.5 million or $15 million, it’s going to be difficult, she said.
“To lose almost $15 million would be challenging, to say the least,” she said.
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Verne,
Here’s another simple economics lesson: All those kids going through school right now are ostensibly the same people who will be buying the houses of baby boomers as they retire.
What will happen to the value of those house as we burden these folks with tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, each, at the age of 22? Keep in mind the total amount of college debt in this country now exceeds the total amount of credit debt, and is quickly approaching the total amount of home equity debt.
Say what you will about junk degrees, etc, but a higher cost of education WILL affect all of us personally in some form or another. If you are willing to accept this, fine, but it is extremely short-sighted to think that our actions come without consequences.
OK, I got a good nights rest so maybe I’m a bit calmer this morning. Alma, I’ll bite. You start to make an interesting point, but don’t finish it. I’m all for people working together towards “reasonable solutions,” but I don’t know what you’re proposing. If you’ve got something in mind I’d like to hear it. Maybe we can all learn something.
Verne,
We, being the student protesters, are aware that there is a very limited budget for the university to work with. Personally I feel the protest was staged not (as many people view it) to decry budget cuts to the university/ fee hikes/ a lack of classes offered and professors, but to show the administration that we want them to work with us towards a reasonable solution regarding all of these cuts and fee increases. You’d be surprised to know most of the campus is quite apathetic to the issue because they are out of the area and here for a degree. And then there are the protesters who have yet to take economics.
Imagine that, students are so resourceful that they’ll even, when forced, take classes on Friday! Oh, the burden.
I’d be far more sympathetic to this farcical nonsense if most SSU students were studying for careers that 1) were in short supply in our society or 2) offered the student a career related to that major.
But they aren’t. They’re majoring in whatever strikes their fancy today. Too many, far too many, end up with debts that exceed the earning capacity of the degree.
We need to rethink the idea that virtually every student ought to get a university degree divorced from the reality of the marketplace.
Maybe I’ve just spent a long day working at the office, but I’m getting awfully sick of all these whiny beneficiaries crying over some reduction to their supposed entitlements. Whether you’re a student enjoying a taxpayer subsidized education or a county pensioner enjoying a taxpayer subsidized retirement, just once I’d like to hear one of you say “thank you Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer for your sacrifice in making this all possible.”.
“It’s extremely unusual for almost every student to be almost taking a full load,” said Marilyn Sargent, SSU’s director of institutional research. “They couldn’t have done that if the course weren’t available.”
Students find a way. Especially when financial aid dollars are tied to the number of units being taken. Students TA, take work study, etc. Implying courses are available because almost everyone is taking close to a full load paints a deceptive picture.
maybe these student protesters should have to take a basic math class or simple economics.
There is NO MONEY!