Thousands of community college students from all over California gathered on March 17 in Sacramento to protest against the proposed budget cuts.
The March on March, as it was called, had protesters grouped in front of the state government building and most carried banners that put Governor Davis’ proposed cuts into question. There, in front of an improvised stage, they listened to speakers voice their opinions.
The crowd was very diverse in race and age, although most of the participants were students-a number of them were teachers of junior colleges.
There was a list of speakers in which students and those who had something to say had a chance to sign in and talk to the large audience. Some speeches were conducted in Spanish and there were at least two persons translating all speeches into sing language.
Also, a group of about 80 students were invited to attend an auditorium. Heather Pynn, a Skyline liberal arts student was one of the students who made their way in the building to talk to some government officials. She attended the informal session inside the Capitol and had a chance to talk to Senator Bruce McPherson.
“It was basically a random question and answer, whoever was loud enough got to speak,” Pynn said.
“[McPherson] said that he didn’t agree with the state of the state budget, that he had never seen the things as bad as they were within the past thirty years.”
Some members of the Associated Students of Skyline College (ASSC) had a meeting with Soren Tjernell, who works for Senator Jackie Speier.
“We talked about how fee increases would affect our students and how it seemed like the community colleges were taking the biggest burden out of the education [budget] cuts,” said Krystal Gallagher, ASSC president.
“Jackie Speier is our state senator and she already is all about education and she’s been one of our main supporters.”
Out of the estimated of about 10,000 students who attended the protest, about 300 were from Skyline. ASSC rented four shuttle buses to transport the Skyline participants and they also provided lunch for all of them.
Compared to other protests, the March on March was peaceful and clean. There was no apparent damage done to any property by the protesters, even though a lot of them marched through Capitol Mall from West Sacramento to the Capitol Park. There was no sign of garbage dumped on the street.
The police department did not have to enforce security so much neither. Only a few officers were supervising the gathering in the Capitol building. There was no need to close streets and no crimes were reported.
“I thought [the protest] was very effective,” Gallagher said. “It was all about students uniting and fighting budget cuts.”