Community colleges, students join for protestOne way to protest education cuts is to block classroom doors, shut down campuses and hurl torches at a chancellor's house. All have been tried recently by students angry at rising tuition and declining quality of California's higher education. |
"We will be respectful, not disrupt class, and work with our administration," said Lee Fuller, a delegate to the Student Senate of the California Community Colleges, which is sponsoring what they've dubbed the "March on March."
It's the third large rally this month to demand that state lawmakers restore millions of dollars to public education.
The earlier rallies were mainly peaceful, but drama stole the spotlight each time. On March 4, protesters ran onto Interstate 880 in Oakland late in the day, snarling rush-hour traffic for hours. Three days earlier, five students from the University of California refused to leave a lawmaker's Sacramento office. Their arrests grabbed the headlines.
There's no guarantee that acts of civil disobedience won't be tried today, as an expected 10,000 students will march from Raley Field to a rally at the state Capitol and an address from Community College Chancellor Jack Scott.
But student organizers say attention by mayhem is not what they want. Many plan to bus to the Capitol with administrators from their schools.
"This is a peaceful protest," said Bradley Stottler, a Berkeley City College student and community college senate delegate. "We're there to have our voices heard."
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