CASU Spring 2014 Newsletter
CALIFORNIA STUDENT UNION NEWSLETTERIssue #2, 5th of April 2014
Fight for CCSF
The fight back around the threatened closure of San Francisco City College has reached a fever pitch. The unjust and illegal ACCJC, an accreditation body which covers California community colleges, has threatened the school with closure. In response to the downsizing and privatization the student body has stood up against this assault on public education. A series of protests over the last year, including an occupation of San Francisco’s City Hall, have yielded not only popular support of students and community but also a slew of lawsuits. These lawsuits not only came from student organizers, but also from the local American Federation of Teachers and the City Attorney’s office of San Francisco. The constant pressure and ensuing lawsuits lead by students has resulted in an immediate injunction of the ACCJC’S decision until the end of the City Attorneys case. Recently the pro-ACCJC administration, led by Bob Agrella the special trustee with extraordinary powers, has instituted an unfair payment policy, attempted to raise administrators salaries, while canceling classes and imposing a quota on class size. The payment policy disproportionately hurt international and undocumented students. In a meeting with newly appointed Chancellor Arthur Tyler one student was crassly told they should “pick up cans” in addition to working and studying to meet the financial demands of the ACCJC. In response to these attacks hundreds of students decided to bring their demands into the administration building on March 13th. They were met by the batons and pepper spray of both the campus police and the San Francisco Police Department. After the violent repression of this peaceful protest, Bob Agrella and his police have begun targeting students with the threat of removing their right to assemble and to organize on campus. These specific attacks are strikingly similar to what we have seen at other community colleges across the state such as Santa Monica College. Administrations actively suppress the student movement by inflicting violence upon the campus to make way for the Student Success Act. In the face of these attacks, and lawsuits, the college’s board of trustees and the student government have offered almost no immediate solution. However, at City College there exists a successful community push back created by student grassroots organizing and the demand of community control over their own institutions. The movement has even forced the City Attorney to file suits against the state accrediting body. As these attacks on public education spread, they can ultimately only be stopped by students on a statewide level. Only an organization such as CASU, which is embedded within the students, can defend the right to education!
38 Student Enrolled or No Class
Once again the California Community College system has turned their backs to needs of the students. As if that wasn’t painful enough, the Los Angeles Community College District has now mandated that the average class room size be thirty-eight students. Thirty-eight students! Any professor would agree that a class of that size CASU Spring 2014 Newsletter |:
