Can you hear us now?!
By Angela DeLuca
This Thursday, April 14, The Associated Students of UCLA and the University of California Student Association joined together to put on a free, nonprofit concert to protest the budget cuts to higher education in California. The event featured rapper Thurz of U-N-I, artist Trek Life and Rob Roy who appeared free of charge to support the student movement. The concert, itself, was held on the 300 block of S. Spring Street in front of the Governor’s Los Angeles office. The voices of the students and the message behind the concert were brought directly to Brown’s front door. In attendance were student representatives from five of the eight UC campuses. The commotion brought on lookers to stop and join the fun, the noise and the cause.
The concert was held in congruent to the national Week of Action, Where’s the Funding (WTF) campaign. It is not coincidental that the national and state student protests are overlapping, for the battle students face is one both of the national and state level. Governor Brown entered office reliant on the student vote and promising higher education a much needed relief, but the fruition of his actions has brought a proposed minimal $1.4 billion dollar budget cut from the community college, CSU and UC systems. The stability of this figure was contingent on a June ballot initiative to extend the tax increases set to expire this year. However, earlier this month, Brown announced that he no longer would support a June ballot initiative. The new higher education cut is projected to be around $3 billion.
Yet simultaneously, the national government is threatening federal financial aid programs that have come to be the student’s only silver lining in this bleak educational storm. Obama’s proposed cuts the summer’s Pell Grants is paired with the newest round of fee increases passed by the UC Regents and is leaving many students’ educational future in a state of limbo.
California students are looking at a grim future as both budgets are being balanced on our backs. Jobs are gridlocked from access without a college degree; yet obtaining one requires $4,000 every ten weeks and only having access to enough classes to hold part time standing. This quarter, the philosophy department at UC Santa Cruz only had the funding to offer three upper division classes, leaving the 450 students of the department to battle it out for those few precious spots.
The truth of the matter is, students’ lack of strength is due to our political apathy. Yet there is no question why such a condition plagues our generation when short sightedness of our elected officials robs us of possible success one decision at a time. This immediate focal is voiding the future of the ingenuity which fueled the American economic conquest. Our country cannot continue the bourgeoisie acclimation if the next generation is condemned to a proletariat status. Thus, student organization and recognition is the agenda of the day.
It is necessary that students stand united against these cuts to flex our political bicep and show that we do have a significant voting power. That is what the message and the beauty of Thursday’s concert. It brought together students of different campuses to unite in front of the Governor and ask, “Can you hear us now?”
