Hi all,<br><br>I'd like to inform you all about the <b>March 4th, 2010 "March for Education."</b> Students workers, teachers, parents, and their
organizations and communities will be mobilizing for what has become a
nation-wide<b> Day of Action in Defense of Public Education. </b>The
march follows the UC-wide Walk-Out at the beginning of the year, and
the protests at the Regents meeting at UCLA. These student actions are
having a significant impact. In fact, Governor Schwarzenegger has said
that his recent proposal to increase the percentage of the state budget
allotted to education was a direct response to these student protests.
By keeping up momentum on this, we can produce meaningful change. <br>
<br><b>Get involved</b>, whether it be through planning what will
happen that day, helping outreach, or by spreading the word. The number
of students involved is already enormous, and there is also large
faculty involvement. But this is something that everyone needs to take
part in.<br>
<br><b>The Student Justice Alliance (SJA) has weekly meetings on
Wednesdays at 8:00 PM at Sproul 1340. This is where most of the student
organizing for the Day of Action is being done.</b><br><br><b>The Free
UCR Alliance, a student/faculty/worker coalition group, meets Thursdays
at 4:00 PM at the Women's Studies Conference Room, INT 2031. This is
where students, faculty, and workers share information and
strategize about how we can work together organizing for the march.</b><br>
<br>This is an urgent issue. Recent cuts to education in California
have been devastating. Last quarter undergraduates in the UC system
faced fee increases of 32% (and an increase of 300% since the early
nineties); graduate professional student fees have gone up 55%; and
while many graduate students do not have to pay student fees, it hits
us in the form of decreased TA-ships, larger class sizes, and cuts to
our departments, which mean that they can no longer offer services they
once did. <br>
<br>Because of the cutting, certain programs on campus are worse off
than others. The University Writing Center is an example. Normally
offering one hundred courses English 1C (required composition courses
for undergraduates), next quarter administrators have reduced the
offering to sixteen courses, which only juniors and seniors may take.
This is still nowhere near enough to serve all the juniors and seniors
who need to fulfill the requirement, which means many students will not
graduate, unless we do something.<br>
<br>The time to act is now.<br><br>For more information contact:<br><br><a href="mailto:SJAUCR@gmail.com" target="_blank">SJAUCR@gmail.com</a><br><br>or<br><br><a href="mailto:FreeUCR@gmail.com" target="_blank">FreeUCR@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>Best,<br>
<br><br>Bryan<br><br clear="all">--<br>Bryan Ziadie<br>Legislative Liaison | Graduate Student Association | UC Riverside<br>951-852-3474<br><br>