This is a small departure from a themed topic on my blog. I think this is a relevant topic that affects us all no matter what your thoughts are on the topic of CSU fee hikes and all the many 'takeaways' that are being proposed. I had occasion to hear a presentation by Students for Quality Education in one of my classes last week. They gave a presentation based on facts and frustrations that their voices are not being heard and felt there were very few options open to them without protest. They gave several strategies that this group and several other groups at the CSU campus' will be conducting over the next few months. This week in the news, one of the speakers is involved in a hunger strike in protest to: rising student fees, freeze on enrollments, loss of faculty and staff, salary increases to campus presidents, cuts to student classes and services, and elimination of bonuses and other perks (housing, car, and entertainment allowances) to campus presidents and executives. The protests proposed are all non-violent and are mostly to present solidarity. They indicated that there has been some intimidation by campus police and felt that there should be some free speech areas on campus.
Whatever your thoughts, we all have seen the many cuts to all services in city, county, public, and private organizations. We know that is a sign of the times. While our educational fees at a public university are still the most cost effective, we have seen cuts to our classes, prolonged graduation, and the fee hikes that do impact those students who have very few financial resources. I can't help worrying about those students and our children for their future educational pursuits. In review of needed improvements for our County, we need to have an educated workforce to encourage business and industry to come to our area. So, for this bidirectional model to work, we need to have college graduates to fill professional jobs and we need jobs for our educated professionals. The solutions will not happen overnight and will take much communication and cooperation from all sides of this discussion.
