San Diego City College students and faculty protest fee hikes with "Ramen-In." Jim Miller photo

March 2, 2011, San Diego, and March 4, Los Angeles and San Francisco—San Diego City college students staged the first-ever “Ramen-in” at Governor Brown’s San Diego office on Wednesday, March 2, and LACC and SFCC students followed suit two days later. Students, faculty and their supporters protested the $300 fee increase the governor has proposed ($10 per unit for 30 units, a normal academic year’s load). “The $300 fee hike will come from students’ budget for food and other necessities. We will be eating Ramen for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said San Diego City College student Jose Rodriguez. “Hundreds of students will deliver thousands of packages of Ramen to the governor’s offices around the state to show the impact of this huge fee increase,” he predicted.

“A tough budget for tough times” would jack fees 38%

Sacramento, January 25—Inheriting a chronically out of balance budget, Governor Jerry Brown has set to work to right the ship of state. He promised in his campaign he would forego the accounting gimmicks employed for years to keep California’s budget afloat, because these have failed to address the underlying problems of the deficit. He has mostly kept his promise with his first budget proposal, and the result is not pretty for any state funded program, including the community colleges.

The human face of budget cuts

Cesar Cota, a student at LA City College, was the first in his family to attend college. "Now it's hard to achieve my dream,” he says, “because the state put higher fees on us, and cut services and classes."

David Robinson, who’s worked since he was 14, hoped he’d get automotive mechanic training, and a good job at the end of it. “But by cutting these programs and raising fees,” he says, “you're cutting opportunity for a lot of people who need it."

Another endangered student is Tina Vinaja, a mother of three teenagers whose husband took a weekend job to help pay her tuition hikes.

Monica Mejia, a single mom, wants to get out of the low-wage trap. "Without community college,” she says, “I'll end up getting paid minimum wage. I can't afford the fee hikes. I can barely make ends meet now.”

Small part of the picture
These students make up a small part of the picture of suffering engendered by the economic crisis in the community college system. According to Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, and a community college math instructor for more than thirty years, the system will turn away over 250,000 students this year alone. “Where can they go?” he asks. “UC? CSU? The workforce? None is a viable option—for both economic and political reasons.”