Illustration by Jamie Morton.

It was a conversation with his father that brought the recession home for Scott Leiserson.

“My dad is a very futuristic person in his planning, and he thought for a while he would be writing a check for my college,” Leiserson said. “Eventually, the financial crisis hit. And he owns a manufacturing business … He lost half his business in one quarter of time, and another half in the second quarter, making it a three-quarter loss.”

The financial crisis of 2007-08 and the subsequent recession caused Leiserson to take out Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans through UC Santa Cruz’s Financial Aid and Scholarship Office. Leiserson has been a student at UCSC for two years now, and he currently owes $71,820.

“It’s scary,” he said. “When all this happened my dad said, ‘We just can’t pay for your college right now, you’re taking all the loans.’ I’ve been getting these statements each quarter … and this number is a lot.”

At a projected $1 trillion nationwide, student loan debt is not going away any time soon. For many the burden is staggering: Student debt is increasing at an estimated rate of $2,853.88 per second, according to The Project on Student Debt, a non-profit group that is part of the Institute for College Access & Success. After adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports that students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago.

In late October, President Obama introduced changes in student loan legislation, and recently there has been a surge of stories calling the loans situation a “bubble,” akin to the financial crisis of 2007-08. While pundits and politicians alike are taking notice and speaking out about the loan situation, many students remain concerned about whether there are any solutions in sight.

Jason Green finished his degree at UC Santa Cruz in January of 2011. He explained how crushing the debt of student loans can become.

“I got my degree in biology and I’m $80,000 in debt right now,” he said. “With my degree, if I could get a decent job it wouldn’t be so bad, but the job market is so fucked right now too that I’m just so screwed.”

He said since his family was neither impoverished nor incredibly wealthy, he was put in a difficult situation.

“Combined, my parents make about $120,000, so we couldn’t get any financial aid,” he said. “But it wasn’t enough to pay for college either, so I had to take out loans and try to get scholarships and grants. After my first year I lost my grandparents, and I didn’t have the GPA anymore to get scholarships and grants, so I had to start taking out loans.”

Graduates today face the highest unemployment rate in recent history. In 2009, recent graduate unemployment rate was at 8.7 percent, 1.2 percent beneath the national average. In 2010, the recent graduate rate grew to 9.1 percent, while the national average fell to 9.4 percent. Defaults are up as well: The number of students defaulting on their loans is growing fast, with a 2010 default rate at 8.8 percent, in comparison with 7 percent in 2009.

Dan Rola works the front desk of UCSC’s Financial Aid and Scholarship Office. He said it can be very difficult for students to take on the burden of paying for their education without familial support, the same support weakened by the recession.

“With the credit crunch a lot of families are experiencing, we’re finding students are having trouble getting parent loans. When their parents are denied parent loans, they can reapply with cosigners to still get the federal loans,” he said. “But in a lot of cases parents don’t have that option. So the student is left to find private loans elsewhere. Often they’re left trying to foot the bill, whether it’s a portion of their tuition or housing.”

Graduate Jason Green said at first he was fortunate, as he was able to receive federal loans. However, due to extenuating circumstances, funding his education through private loans was his only option.

“After my grandparents passed and my grades fell, I couldn’t get them anymore,” he said. “I started using Wells Fargo and I used them to get through school.”

Green is among a small minority at UCSC who are left with little choice other than private loans. Only 2.1 percent of UCSC students used private loans during the 2009-10 academic year, according to data from the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office. The rest are federal, with the average student debt upon graduation pegged at $17,546.

As these statistics follow only students who began and finished their undergraduate education at UCSC, the numbers leave out the roughly 2,700 transfer, re-entry and re-admittance UCSC students that make up a significant portion of the campus.

The “Bubble,” and Rethinking Capitalism

In its simplest definition, a speculative bubble is when buyers purchase an asset consistently over a period of time. They envision it rising in value, and as more people purchase the asset, its price rises. Eventually buyers outnumber sellers, and finding nobody to sell to, panic ensues among investors and prices plummet — the bubble “pops.”

In 2007-08, a bubble in mortgage-backed securities brought the United States into a recession. After low-interest rates introduced by the Federal Reserve, investors looked toward housing to invest in high-profit Credit Default Obligations (CDOs). CDOs often held subprime mortgages, loan arrangements for borrowers with a poor credit history and typically with high interest rates. Just like home mortgages, student loans are securitized, and are packaged and sold by investment banks in CDOs.

Like housing, often student loans are made without research into one’s credit or income and are by definition subprime. However, unlike home mortgages, it is nearly impossible for a student to declare bankruptcy and default on his or her debt, much less walk away like many homeowners did.

The Bruce Initiative on Rethinking Capitalism, a project within UCSC’s social sciences, endeavors to look at finance and capitalism through new perspectives, after the events of the 2007-08 financial crisis brought the United States economy to a halt. Professor Robert Meister helped form the program, and said the UC’s ability to continually raise tuition despite future job markets will further increase student debt.

“One needs to understand that in this society, people don’t think of debt as a tax they pay to the financial industry, because they think they’ve already gotten something — their tuition,” he said. “The whole industry exists because well over 90 percent of students cannot finance 100 percent of their costs, and can live on credit besides. Because they can simply add their credit card payments to their student debt … If you view the university as a public institution and you view tuition as a tax, this is the only public agency that can raise taxes and increase the number of payers at the same time.”

Tuition and fees for public four-year institutions across the country have risen 8.3 percent higher since last year, according to a report by College Board. The University of California has increased student fees to record levels, about 18 percent over the course of last year and 30 percent the year before that.

Meister has been a prominent dissident against UC fee hikes. He wrote a series of articles entitled “They Pledged Your Tuition,” in which he described how the UC’s power over tuition was used as collateral for construction bonds. As a leading member of the Rethinking Capitalism Project, he made a suggestion: Instead of the UC regents constantly raising tuition, the University of California could provide a free education for anyone who agreed to a 3 percent income tax for a preset number of years.

Illustration by Jamie Morton.

Working Toward the End of Debt

Nicole Gamache is a former re-entry graduate who transferred from Golden West College in Huntington Beach to UC Berkeley.

“In two years, I acquired $26,000 of student loan debt,” she said, over the phone because she does not have much time between a full-time job and raising her 12-year-old son. “I actually kind of consider myself to be lucky, because I did find a job. It took nine months after I graduated to find one.”

Gamache graduated with a degree in anthropology in 2010 and now lives in Albany, near UC Berkeley, so her son can remain in the same school district. She wants to continue studying anthropology, but can’t, because of her debt to the UC regents — in this case in the form of a hold placed on her account because she couldn’t pay her bills.

“What’s frustrating is I have my B.A., but I can’t get my transcripts and go to grad school because of the amount of money I owe,” she said. “There’s a limit to how much you can take out in a year, so I ended up owing, in addition to the student loans, almost $9,000 to the UC itself.”

Since 2010, Gamache has paid $400 altogether. After her six-month grace period she was able to defer her payments because she was unemployed. Now that she’s working, she’s receiving bills she can’t pay for. While she was able to lower her payments from $300 a month to $50, between housing, food and the expense of raising a child, she says she still can’t pay.

Professor Meister of the Rethinking Capitalism Project said students’ defaulting can be profitable for the loan industry.

“There’s a sense they are more profitable if they perform worse, because they aren’t riskier if they perform worse, they’re just more profitable,” he said. “On the other side, you might have a student with $28,000 in debt … such a student will on average face penalties and collection fees that are added onto your principal — $30,000 collection fees right off the bat. And your default doesn’t put you in a position as a credit card default might, to lower your principal and negotiate. It’s the case that people will often pay, through the miracle of compound interest, something like $130,000 or $140,000 in total.”

Illustration by Jamie Morton.

The Obama Administration’s Response

President Obama’s plans, introduced Oct. 26, include debt consolidation and a lowering of the income percentage that determines payments. Debt consolidation, a new system proposed by the president, would allow students to combine all of their student loans into one monthly payment. This would also help students by providing a lower interest rate if rates had changed. Before, students could have as many as five or six different bills each month. The plans also lower the monthly payments from 15 percent of one’s income to 10 percent, and will forgive any remaining debt after 20 years instead of 25.

UCSC graduate Green said lowering payments would not be valuable to him. He would rather pay his debt faster.

“I don’t want to pay for 20 years,” he said. “While I know that would help a lot of other people, I intend to try to go to grad school or med school in the next two years. That means I’m going to have to take out more money or find another way to take care of it … just pay off the old loan with the new loan.”

Meister questions the amount of help students could actually get from the new legislation.

“In order to qualify, you have to be up-to-date and have not missed a payment,” he said. “And how many people would be in a position where they couldn’t pay it off for 20 years and wouldn’t have missed a payment?”

Part of the problem of calling the current student loans situation a “bubble” is that bubbles are very difficult to predict until they have popped. Patrick Register, associate director of the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office, said he doesn’t see how it could be possible to predict the future of student loan debt.

“There have just been so many variables in the last five years … It’s complicated,” he said. “When I look at our averages, they are not climbing as rapidly as they could be in other states. Part of that is because we have a fairly significant low-income student population, and that student population qualifies for grants — federal, state and institutional. And if the grants come close to keeping up with the increases in tuition, we’re going to be OK.”

Green offered several pieces of advice from the outside, having seen the job market with his own eyes.

“Find experience on campus right now … One of my exes has a double major in anthropology and literature, and she’s working at Trader Joe’s right now,” he said. “Go do something you want to do, right now, because experience matters way, way more than your degree for some reason.”

As a recent graduate, Green just started making payments on his loan debt in October, after his six-month grace period. He has to pay $770 a month with money from work he finds on and off at a temp agency.

“Look early, look now [for work], look two weeks ago — it’s something you should be doing constantly,” he said. “For the last three weeks or so I’ve been employed, then they laid me off for three days, and then they found me a new day job. I’ve worked the last four days and now I’m unemployed again.”

Current UCSC student Leiserson was able to get a job doing property maintenance on a ranch near campus, and he says he’s very excited about it. However, he’s still apprehensive about paying off his loans.

“I’m not sure how long I’ll be working there, but it’s just nice to have another source of income other than the school,” he said. “Especially coming into Christmas time and Thanksgiving — it’s the longest time since the next financial aid.”

By the end of this year, he will owe $91,306.

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

Many students and their families are locked in an unforgiving system: borrowing from the government, banks and private institutions in order to fund a higher education that often doesn’t match the price tag. Students across the country are walking away with an average of $25,000 in debt, only to be left staring at a bleak job market and dwindling prospects for financial improvement.

In an effort to ease the pain of loan repayment, President Obama recently unveiled a loan forgiveness program that would allow qualified loan-holders to pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income — any income 150 percent above the poverty line — toward repayment, with remaining debt forgiven after 20 years. The concept is an extension of the “Pay As You Go” loan forgiveness programs currently in place. Previously, the program required graduates to pay 15 percent with loan forgiveness after 25 years.

The program also allows for consolidation of federal student loans and other federally subsidized private loans given out through programs like the now defunct Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). Consolidation of such loans would result in an average half-percent interest rate decrease. A decrease that only puts a bandage on a situation that requires stitches.

But there is a catch — or two — to this new program: It would not be effective until 2012, loans taken prior to that will not qualify, and to qualify to participate in the program, you must have taken out at least one loan in 2012.

Furthermore, loans taken privately through banks, and not through a federal program like FFELP, will not benefit from consolidation and loan forgiveness programming.

Other legislation currently sitting in Congress now would further reevaluate — and hopefully change — the way student loan debt is addressed. For starters, student loan debt cannot be erased by claiming bankruptcy — unlike credit card debt, for example — and many students and their families are left paying off staggering five- to six-digit debts. Proposed legislation, if passed, could change that.

Despite these well-intentioned moves toward alleviating student debt, what the government is offering is only a taste of the kind of reform that needs to occur.

Students and families trapped in non-federal loans are still left at the mercy of banks that ultimately profit through risky lending practices. If graduates cannot even escape the weight of student debt through bankruptcy, banks are able to maintain a hold on their loans and require payment even when an individual demonstrates he or she lacks the ability to do so.

The problem of student debt is much bigger than Obama’s recently approved plan. It isn’t necessarily the students borrowing from the government or the students with the subsidized loans who are taking the hardest hits — it’s the students who have become victims of private loans.

Student aid, high interest rates and inflexible repayment plans make private loans a kind of silent financial suicide. But with ever-increasing tuition costs, what options are students left with?

Debt is a profit generator for lenders. And insufficient loan forgiveness programs and bankruptcy loopholes that favor lenders are only continuing to promote such profit through debt.

Student debt is destroying the credit and financial well-being of graduates who are left looking forward to an unstable job market and promissory notes that serve as shackles.

“It is our duty to fight for our people. It is our duty to win. We must love and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Three times over, the hundreds of admitted UC Santa Cruz students, led onstage by alumna Eden Jequinto, echoed these words of Assata Shakur — a Black Panther fugitive and African-American rights activist — in unified chant.

The high school seniors, a mix of Latinos, African-Americans and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, each had similar stories to tell: mothers who worked multiple jobs at late hours, bad neighborhoods on the wrong side of town, growing up among thugs and gangsters. Many, if not all in attendance, would be the first in their family to even consider going to college.

Jequinto is no exception. Growing up in La Puente, Calif., Jequinto said she experienced a lot of hardship as a gay Filipino woman. She watched her drunken father turn on her mother, members of her family succumb to alcohol-induced dementia and die, and at the age of eight, she began drinking. Throughout high school, Jequinto said she hated herself for being homophobic but also gay. She said the people like herself and those in the audience that evening were not victims, but survivors.

High school Seniors from troubled areas and low-resource homes are brought to UCSC to convince them to advance their education. Photo by Nick Paris.

“Remember your reason to be here,” Jequinto said. “Is it your mom who works two [or] three jobs, coming home exhausted at night to your five brothers and sisters? Is it that one teacher who finally gave a shit about you and treated you like a human being? Is it your sister, your pops? Whatever it may be, remember it, and remember the thousands of your black and brown brothers and sisters who could not be here tonight with you.”

What followed next was a proud and defiant roar — a symbolic reflection of the adversity with diversity on UC campuses — thundering and rolling its way out of the College Nine and Ten multipurpose room into the cool night air.

Across the entire UC system, various programs, initiatives and organizations are in place to encourage and support first-generation college-bound students with low-resource and low-income backgrounds to strive for higher education. Programs like the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which assists low-income students with college expenses, and Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP), which connect students with a variety of academic and personal support programs, have had measurable success in this regard.

“I myself was the first in my family to go to college,” UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal said to the crowd. “I also know the incredible pride in seeing my kids off to college. To the students that come here, we are dedicated to your success.”

But a student’s retention is dependent on more than just dollars and tutors. Establishing a sense of community — culturally, ethnically and socially — is just as critical. In this way, broad, systemwide programs can fail to provide the localized, tailored support that students need. The promotion of an ethnically diversified campus student body in a university system that has historically been predominantly white necessitates resource centers for outreach and retention.

“Students of color go to where they see the support,” said Carolyn Dunn, UCSC Ethnic Resource Center director. “A lot of these kids coming out of their communities are put into cultural isolation. But our funding could disappear next year and we’d be facing significant losses. Our budget is really tiny as it is. We won’t know how bad the damage is until we hear from the vice chancellor.”

The prospects of finding funds to support more localized programs have become strained since the $500 million budget cuts were handed down by the state to the UC system. To that end, the role that these localized ethnic resource programs play, invaluable to many, has become increasingly restrained.

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

One such resource center at UCSC is the Engaging Education Student-Initiated Outreach and Retention Center, which connects underprivileged high school students with college counseling, builds communities and establishes cross-cultural networks among UCSC students. In addition, it provides a means for educating students about empowerment, social justice and student activism.

“We look to help provide students the opportunity to come get a university education,” said Engaging Education co-chair Yesenia Ramos. “Our programs help students build connections to help with the transition from high school. Students who come in knowing people are more prone to staying. Our outreach programs target students from all over California — Pasadena, Berkeley, the Bay Area — who may come from families with low incomes, or be the first and only member of their family to go to college.”

Engaging Education, headquartered above the Bicycle Co-op in Quarry Plaza, is a support system designed and led by students, for students. As a way of addressing the low rates of recruitment, retention and graduation from historically underrepresented and under-resourced communities, Engaging Education serves an integral function in promoting a more culturally and ethnically diverse campus community.

Founded in 2003, Engaging Education, in conjunction with the Ethnic Resource Centers and the Ethnic Student Organization Council, sought to create a “safe space” for students of color and the continuation of student outreach. Until then, there had not been an establishment of a student-led organization to address the numerous racially motivated incidents on campus.

UCSC’s clashes between students and the administration over diversification stretches as far back as 1969, when students of color seized control over the first graduation ceremony, saying they were frustrated over being discriminated against and marginalized. Even after Engaging Education was formed, hate crimes, including the drawings of nooses and swastikas in bathrooms across campus, continue to happen.

However, thanks largely to outreach programs like the ones supported by Engaging Education, UCSC is beginning to see a significant increase in African-American, Asian-American/Pacific Islander and Latino undergraduate enrollment.

Of the roughly 3,500 freshmen admitted into UCSC for fall 2011, 3.2 percent were African-American, 30.3 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, and 25.5 percent Latino, higher rates than in previous years. In particular, the campus has seen a significant jump in its Latino enrollment — in 2000 by comparison, only 13.8 percent of students admitted were Latino.

Engaging Education’s retention programs have also yielded higher averages than that of the university itself — one such program, the Community Unified Student Network, a peer program designed to help connect and support Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders communally and academically, boasts a 92 percent first-year retention rate, compared to the campus’ 86 percent.

“The program is one of my favorite things about the campus. The enthusiasm shown, the drive of its staff — it’s truly a student program and its really great,” Chancellor Blumenthal said. “Together with the efforts of the university, we’ve made great progress on diversity.”

Engaging Education co-chair Ramos, a fourth-year politics and feminist studies double major, was influenced by Engaging Education’s outreach programs in 2007, which ultimately swayed her into coming to the university.

“I would never have thought about coming here were it not for UCSC’s [outreach] programs,” Ramos said. “None of my cousins went on to higher education, and — being a woman — it has been very hard and very interesting here. These programs are about understanding different cultural needs — not every person and every community is the same. [The programs] are very valuable and needed.”

Ethnic disparities in higher education are not just a problem for the UC system, however. Of the 1,563,069 bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2008 in the United States, 9.8 percent of them went to African-Americans, 7.9 percent to Latinos, and 7 percent to Asian-Americans/Pacific-Islanders, compared to the 71.8 percent awarded to white students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics — a statistic that has only marginally changed over the past 10 years.

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

The state of California in particular has had an ongoing struggle with maintaining a diverse campus community in its post-secondary education institutions. California’s population of over 33.8 million is 44.4 percent white, 34.9 percent Latino, 12.3 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, and 6.4 percent African-American, according to the State Department of Finance’s survey. Starkly contrasting that figure was UCSC’s enrolled undergraduate ethnic breakdown in the fall 2009 quarter, during which 48 percent of students were white, 17.3 percent were Latino, 16 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, and 2.8 percent African-American.

In 1978, in reaction to the California Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action, then-UC president David Saxon mandated the campuses to reflect or “approximate” the racial and ethnic composition of the state’s graduating high school seniors. Since then, the UC system as a whole has failed to match that standard. The UC’s enrolled undergraduate ethnic breakdown in the fall 2009 quarter was 3.4 percent African-American, 26 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, and 15.3 percent Latino.

People of color continue to be underrepresented in higher education, while being overrepresented in the state’s poverty (22 percent of all American Indians in California earn incomes below the federal poverty line), incarceration (29 percent of all prisoners in California prisons are African-American), and high school dropout rates (44 percent of Latinos over the age of 25 have less than a high school diploma).

UCSC second-year Nwadiuto Amajoyi, born in Nigeria and one of five siblings, serves on Engaging Education’s Student-Initiated Outreach (SIO) board of directors. Amajoyi said the UC needs to adopt a new educational paradigm, one with a more interactive space, highlighting the present ethnic disparities at UCSC.

“UCSC is one of the whitest UCs in the system — one of the least diverse, certainly,” Amajoyi said. “When I give tours to incoming students — African-American/black, Latino, whomever — I make a point to alert them of the campus climate. I don’t want them to say things like, ‘I feel like you guys lied to me.’”

Amajoyi said the university has long misconstrued its interpretation of diversity.

“The administration interprets ‘diversity’ as diversity of perspective,” Amajoyi said. “But I would have them consider diversity of ethnicity and race as well. If it did this, diversity of perspective will naturally follow.”

Student regent-designate Alfredo Mireles said that part of the problem is the public’s perception of the UC system. The son of a hardworking mother and formerly undocumented migrant father from Mexico, Mireles said he understands the idea that a university education might appear unfeasible, if only because of its cost.

“The biggest myth about the UC system I’d like to push back is the notion that the universities are only for wealthy, elitist, white males,” Mireles said. “Most other schools are nowhere close to how well we accommodate the underprivileged — we stand head and shoulders above most other public schools.”

Mireles also said he was pleased with the UC’s capacity for providing more aid to more students in need than Ivy League institutions do. In 2004, then–Harvard president Lawrence Summers indicated that three-fourths of the students at Ivy Leagues come from the top income quartile, and only 9 percent from the bottom two quartiles combined. While Ivy Leagues may be able to completely fund their economically disadvantaged students’ education, they accept dramatically fewer students who qualify for such aid, in comparison to the UC.

The percentage of students at Harvard and Princeton who receive Federal Pell Grants is 8.4 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, and comparably, 38.1 percent of UCLA’s students receive Pell Grant aid, according to the Education Trust. UC Berkeley and UC Davis both provide more student aid in Pell Grants than the entire Ivy League system combined.

Leading the UC’s mission to assist students with low-income backgrounds is the university’s Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan. Approved in 2009, the plan established assistance for undergraduates with financial need and household incomes below the state median of $60,000 — now $80,000 — per year. At minimum, the plan makes up the difference from federal aid to help eligible students completely cover their UC fees. With the threshold set at the state’s median income, this potentially enables half of California’s population to have their systemwide fees covered. This qualifies more than half of California’s Pacific Islander,

African-American, American Indian, and Latino population, according to median household incomes listed in the 2000 Census.

But such successes may prove to be a double-edged sword for outreach and retention efforts like those of Engaging Education. With the $500 million in budget cuts that were handed down to the UC by the state and with more on the horizon, the ability to continue funding these programs grows increasingly difficult. Paulina Raygoza, the organizing director of Engaging Education, said that while its outreach programs may have a secure source of funding, its capacity to conduct outreach to the state youth has become increasingly limited.

“Our state funding is used as a political bargaining chip,” Raygoza said. “At one point we had $81,000 from the state — now we receive less than half of that. It’s a sort of ‘we’ll give you the money if you do this’ kind of thing.”

Presently, a $5 student-approved campus fee helps fund the six UCSC Ethnic Resource Centers as well as the SIO programs — $3 to the resource centers, $1 to CARE Council, and $1 to SIO. The SIO programs, a subset of Engaging Education, attract promised funding from the Chancellor’s office each year, an amount which used to be $2 for every dollar students pay (last year the Chancellor’s funds dropped to $1.75 for every dollar paid).

As one of the campus’s strongest and most effective means of reaching out to the state, Engaging Education’s SIO programs are critical to the continued diversification of the student body. Yet with the economy in the state that it’s in and steeper cuts being handed down by the UC administration, getting high school students to and from their communities to familiarize themselves with the campus becomes increasingly expensive.

“Prices went up this year due to the budget cuts and the economy,” SIO director Amajoyi said. “We need to transport students from all across the state by bus and plane. This year, our plane tickets cost $500 more than last [year].”

Cuts made to the state’s K–12 education have also forced additional responsibilities onto SIO.

“Because of the budget cuts, a lot of the K–12 schools are not doing enough college prep work simply because they are unable to,” Engaging Education director Raygoza said. “What can we do to help fill that role? We have to think about the educational barriers that affect high school youths.”

The university’s cutting of funding to its community studies and American studies majors also is seen by some as indirectly undermining the efforts made by outreach and retention programs. Amajoyi said that cuts like this discourage African-American, Latino and Asian-American enrollment.

“These classes [that get cut] reflect the histories of our communities that would otherwise be told from a Eurocentric perspective,” Amajoyi said. “Think about it: coming out of high school, you might know a little of black history — Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, slavery and a bunch of dead white presidents — but what do you know of Chicano history? Of Asian-Americans’?”

Ethnic Resource Center director Dunn said many of the students she works with major in the studies that get cut.

“We used to see quite a few community studies majors before it was cut,” Dunn said. “Now a significant majority are American studies majors or Latin American and Latino studies majors. We’re concerned with who is next. Feminist studies? LALS?”

To compensate, Engaging Education also allocates funds to teach their own five-unit courses at UC

SC. The student-led courses seek to engage UCSC students in a comfortable setting with histories and stories they may be unfamiliar with.

“The classes themselves are student-run and serve as more of a dialogue space than your standard lecture,” Raygoza said. “Everyone is their own teacher, bringing in their own stories. The class focuses more on our ethnic identities and the struggles and our ability to create change.”

Canvases painted by high school students involved in the Student Initiate Outreach program. The canvases are meant to inspire members of the students’ communities back home. Photos by Nick Paris.

In conjunction with other student staff at Engaging Education, Raygoza said that the five-unit winter and spring quarter class could not replace the absence of two entire departments.

Student regent-designate Mireles said he would do everything he could to support programs like Engaging Education, and is already lobbying for Chancellor Blumenthal to continue his promise to match SIO’s fundraising.

“I think it’s a tragedy that [the American studies and community studies] majors were cut,” Mireles said. “But the decisions made under the budgetary constraints are not about targeting any one group — the entire UC will have to reevaluate every program. It’s really all about the ability to procure external funding. But I see the importance in having Engaging Education

— for these high school kids to see students with similar backgrounds flourishing in college, it makes a world of difference.”

Closing her speech onstage, UCSC alumna Jequinto had the hundreds of admitted UCSC students abuzz with excitement over their futures at the university. Turning away from the crowd, she looked straight down and to the left, where Chancellor Blumenthal sat, and addressed him directly.

“We are ready to fight to maintain funding for programs like this, Chancellor Blumenthal,” Jequinto said. “You’ve got to trust us, you’ve got to let us do our thing, because we know what we’re doing here — I give you my word. Where I stand, there are thousands more like me ready to fight for them.”

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

UCSC alumnus Gabe Zimmerman was one of six people killed during the recent shooting in Tucson, Ariz. A social sciences scholarship has been proposed at UC Santa Cruz in honor of Zimmerman and his dedication to social justice.

Zimmerman was a congressional aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was holding a public forum the day Zimmerman was fatally shot. A gunman opened fire at the crowd gathered in front of a Safeway, critically injuring Giffords and fatally wounding Zimmerman.

A community memorial took place Jan. 13 to pay respects to Zimmerman, but UCSC alumni are seeking a more permanent tribute to Zimmerman’s life. Former UCSC student Jonathan Klein proposed a commemorative scholarship in response to the Arizona attack.

“I’m hoping that students that come to UC Santa Cruz like I did, like Gabe did …have the opportunity to learn about what Gabe did, what happened in Tucson, and to be helped out financially,” Klein said.

The scholarship will aid undergraduates in the social sciences. It is intended to provide financial support to politically-minded students working in social justice and public service.

“What I hope that people gain is a better understanding of the time and effort that it takes for somebody to be part of a democratic process,” Klein said. “It’s something people don’t think about on a day-to-day basis. Gabe Zimmerman gave the ultimate sacrifice for democracy, as if he were a soldier in battle.”

If the Gabriel Zimmerman Scholarship Fund reaches endowment, the scholarship will continuously and annually provide financial aid to social sciences students. Between $15,000 and $18,000 has been raised, but $50,000 is needed to endow the scholarship.

Joop Rubens, UCSC associate director of development, handles funding for the school, and is working with donors for the Gabriel Zimmerman Scholarship Fund.

“We’ve had over 250 responses,” Rubens said.“I’m hopeful that by the end of the month I can call Gabe’s parents and tell them that we will able to endow the scholarship.”

One of those responses was from UCSC alumnus Jon Carnero. Carnero now works in New York, but reached out from across the country after hearing about the loss of a former UCSC student.

“To see such violence take place [in Tucson] was jarring,” Carnero said. “That’s when I realized, ‘What can I do?’”

Carnero spoke to his boss about donating to the Zimmerman Scholarship so it can reach endowment. The company agreed to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $500.

“I would like to see it support students so that they can continue their education with the vision of going into public service and make a positive impact on society,” Carnero said.

Carnero is one of many people responding to the tragedy.

Alex Clemens, another UCSC alumnus, is contributing his marketing contacts to the scholarship’s cause. Clemens is grabbing media attention for the Zimmerman scholarship along with Klein and Rubens, hoping to attract more donations.

Rubens expressed enthusiasm for students like Zimmerman.

“[Gabe] was part of the Global Information Internship Program,” Rubens said. “Any time I meet people here on campus who are very intelligent and very driven and very eager to work around social change, they’re part of this program. They always impress me. It wasn’t a surprise that he was one of these students. Clearly he was a very impressive individual.”

After Zimmerman received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from UCSC in 2002, he received his master’s in social work at Arizona State University. The Arizona State University Gabe Zimmerman Spirit of Service Scholarship has also been set up in Zimmerman’s honor.

“In terms of it affecting campus life, I think if this scholarship can show that something so tragic can turn into something that gives us hope for many, many years to come if we can endow it — then that’s amazing,” Rubens said. “You guys should be proud that you go to a school that Gabe graduated from, that people like Jonathan and Alex graduated from. I mean, you guys are them.”

~~~~~~

For more information, contact Joop Rubens at jrubens@ucsc.edu or (831) 502-7275.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Funding for the Federal Pell Grant is short $5.7 billion this year, after Congress underestimated the number of students who would request aid and the amount of money they would require. Currently, 39 percent of UC undergraduates — 70,000 students — receive the Pell Grant, according to the University of California website.

Unlike a loan the Pell Grant does not have to be repaid.

The amount of money awarded depends on students’ individual circumstances. For the 2010–2011 school year, the expected maximum amount of money to be distributed was $5,500. However, with the new reductions, the amount of money to be distributed for 2011 and the next school year is $4,705. This equals a 15 percent decrease and an approximate $845 taken off of every Pell Grant awarded.

UCSC student Jamiee Cook, a first–year from Kresge, has received the Pell Grant for two quarters now.

“I already get a lot of financial aid, so my tuition and housing will still be covered. But [because of the Pell Grant downsize] I’m going to have to find other means to pay for school supplies like books and an i>clicker,” Cook said. “[The Pell Grant reductions] really suck … I already took another loan to cover books this quarter because [the price of] housing is ridiculous here.”

Every year the Pell Grant’s funding must be approved by Congress. One million moderate-income students may lose the Pell Grant, and about 6 million low- and moderate-income students will have smaller grants, said FinAid.org website publisher Mark Kantrowitz.

Pell Grant funding shortfalls have occurred and been resolved before.

“UC expends a great deal of time and energy advocating for financial support for students,” said Nancy Coolidge, coordinator for government relations for the University of California Office of the President. “We expect and hope that [Congress] will again fund Pell Grants … as the law anticipates they will — a maximum award for 2011–2012 of $5,550.”

As of now, 8,200 students at UCSC stand to lose aid.

“All students who receive need-based financial aid would be affected [by the Pell Grant shortfall] because a decrease in one fund program causes a shift in all of them,” said Jaimie Vargas, director of strategic planning and communication for Student Affairs at UCSC.

Genevieve Hammang, an Oakes first–year who receives the Pell Grant, said she has already witnessed a decrease in financial aid.

“Last year, my expected family contribution with the FAFSA was $3,000 to $6,000,” Hammang said. “This year it is $17,000.”

The expected family contribution is the amount of money that a student’s family will have to pay after all financial aid is taken into account.

For students who do not qualify for private loans and students who do not want them, the only way around an unaffordable education would be to pursue cheaper tuitions at other schools. UCs could potentially lose students to other schools due to their rising expenses and decreasing financial aid. In fact, first–year Cook is planning to leave UCSC next year.

“I’m going to a CSU next year because the tuition there is half of the tuition at a UC,” Cook said.

At least one statewide organization is currently working to solve this problem.

The California Public Interest Research Group [CALPIRG] employs professionals that directly lobby state officials to negotiate the amount of money that goes into education. At UCSC, CALPIRG raises money by encouraging students to add a $5 expense to their tuition each quarter to contribute to financial aid reserves.

“[CALPIRG] will be working to show broad face support for a reinvestment in higher education and to stop the Pell Grant cuts this year,” said UCSC alumna and CALPIRG campus organizer Katie Roper after learning of the Pell Grant cutback.

Roper also said that CALPIRG has a plan for the new year that involves calling UC students to action. With a student board of eight people from different UCs, it plans to fight for higher education by getting its concerns publicized by the media.

“Studies have shown that Californians are apathetic to the degradation of higher education,” Roper said. “But the UC system helps boost the economy.”

UCOP recently stated that it “fully expects Congress to sustain level funding for Federal Pell Grants for 2011–2012.”

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Now that Jerry Brown has taken the gubernatorial seat, the California Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act will once again be up for passage. Likewise, the federal DREAM Act, a pathway for high-achieving, undocumented students to gain citizenship, will soon face a new Republican majority Congress. The results could affect students and veterans alike at UCSC and elsewhere.

Currently, many undocumented high school students are denied the opportunity to attend college due to lack of financial support. The only form of financial aid they are afforded falls under AB 540, a bill that states undocumented high school graduates who have attended a California high school for three or more years can pay in-state tuition — thousands of dollars lower than out-of-state tuition. In addition, without citizenship, graduates exit college with very limited choices, their only job options being those that do not require social security numbers. This essentially renders their degrees useless.

The California DREAM Act, if passed, would give undocumented AB 540 students equal opportunity to receive the same financial aid a citizen receives for any state college or university from the state of California.

Claudia Magaña, external vice chair of the Student Union Assembly at UC Santa Cruz, offered some insight on why the University of California Student Association (UCSA) has made passing the California DREAM Act its primary campaign this year.

“For every student that is enrolled in a UC, 32 percent of what we pay in fees goes into this pot for financial aid, and the financial aid is distributed based on merit to all students,” Magaña said. “Undocumented students pay into this, but they have no access to that money. So that’s a big issue.”

Magaña said that in September, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the act, it was the state’s large deficit that prevented the act’s passage. The act would add an estimated $40 million to the already increasing California deficit, according to an article posted in September on examiner.com.

“The main argument against it was a fiscal issue,” Magaña said. “The state is in a big deficit, and the governor said we couldn’t afford it.”

Still, Magaña has hope for the future of the DREAM Act not only for California, but on the federal level.

“We just contacted Jerry Brown’s office, and he said he’d sign it,” Magaña said. “What I really want to see pass is the Federal DREAM Act to give students access to citizenship. Because in the end, what are they going to do with their degrees once they graduate?”

Prospective applicants of the federal DREAM Act must have come to the United States before the age of 16 and hold a high school diploma or GED equivalent. Applicants must have lived in the United States for at least five years. Once accepted, the student will be set on a six-year track to citizenship, unlike the California DREAM Act, which only offers greater access to financial aid.

Another main benefit offered by the federal DREAM Act is that it expands aid and gives temporary residency status to people who plan to serve in the military, regardless of whether they have a green card.

Support for the act has come from an unexpected place since its first proposal in 2001, said Daniel Wilson, Veterans Student Support Coordinator for the Veterans Education Team Support (VETS) program on campus.

“In 2005, the Department of Defense listed the DREAM Act as a No. 1 priority, which is really odd,” Wilson said. “Because we were in two heavy wars at the time, we had recruitment issues. This act would increase recruitment.”

Although the DREAM Act potentially poses financial problems for students who are citizens of the United States, Wilson said, he believes the benefits for high-achieving undocumented people outweigh these costs.

“The argument against it would be that these people without citizenship are taking money away from the financial aid fund that could go to American citizen students,” Wilson said. “[But] my experience with the veteran community is that it is highly expected that people who serve in the military should receive citizenship.”

UCSC students have been fighting on behalf of these issues for a while. Third-year Chris Cuadrado, a Latin American and Latino studies major, took part in a protest at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office earlier this year, and is passionate about passing the federal DREAM Act.

“It will contribute to the decriminalization of undocumented persons,” Cuadrado said in an e-mail. “It will make state funding, like FAFSA, available to undocumented youth, ultimately alleviating the stresses of college life for AB 540 students.”

In Wilson’s opinion, both the federal and state DREAM Acts, though different, provide a chance to harness the potential of all the people who live in the United States, no matter where they hail from.

“Intelligence is evenly distributed across the planet. It doesn’t care where your parents are from or your heritage,” Wilson said. “There are a lot of smart people out there without support because of the decisions that their parents made.”

The proposal goes to a  final vote before the entire Board of Regents tomorrow.

“It’s probable, but it’s not over til its over,” said UC President Mark Yudof, on the chances of the fee increases passing tomorrow.

The fee item was passed without any students present. All spectators in the open session were forced to leave by UC police officers after numerous disruptions during the 20 minute public comment period and during the committee on finance’s deliberation. Fourteen students were arrested on two different occasions in the meeting preceding the committee vote.

The first fee increase, a system wide fee of $585 dollars for every undergraduate student,  will begin next quarter.  The second increase kicks in during the 2010-11 school year and will increase student fees $1,344 dollars per undergraduate. When all is said and done, student fees will be raised to $10,302 dollars, a 32.5 percent increase from current fees.

According to the regents, 33 percent of the revenue generated by both fee increases will go to financial aid.

“The result of budget cuts [from the state of California] is that we are recommending a mid-year fee increase,” said Patrick Lenz Vice President for budget, in a presentation to the regents.

The State of California, experiencing its worst fiscal crisis in years, ­­cut $637.1 million in allocations to the UC, leaving it with $2.6 billion for the 2009-10 fiscal year, twenty percent less of what it used to receive in state funding.

In a speech addressed to a regent, UC President Yudof said, “ I think we are doing it in a way that makes sense… it will end the furlough plan and extend library hours.”

Without the fee increases the UC will fall short $792 million dollars in its budget.

Along with the fee increase, the regents will request that the California state legislature provide UC with $913 million dollars for the next fiscal year. Even if the  state legislature responds positively to this request UC, will still face a $144 million dollar gap.

“We have to fix this,” said John Plotts, the Assistant Vice President of Finance. “Or we have no future.”

Illustration by Maggie McManus.

The United States Student Association (USSA) is urging collegiates nationwide to contact their local senators and fight for student aid reform legislation in a week they have entitled “Raising Pell.”

The members of the USSA have strategically decided to go into action the week before the ballot goes out to raise awareness to politicians about the need for student aid reform. As the state of California has been reevaluating their funding for higher education and the way students are granted financial aid, this week of action has become particularly important to students on UC campuses.

“Pell” refers to the recent increases in Pell Grants from $4,731 to $5,350 this year under the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA). The act is intended to help college students afford the cost of their post-secondary educations.

Some of the improvements listed in the SAFRA bill include increasing Pell Grants annually from $5,550 in the year 2010 to $6,900 in 2019, simplifying the FAFSA form and investing $2.55 billion in historically black and minority colleges.

Currently, 4,785 UC Santa Cruz students receive aid from the Pell Grant — about 27 percent of the total students enrolled. Full-time students can receive anywhere from $976 to $5,350 annually through the grant.

Monique Teal, the national field director for USSA in Washington D.C., is impressed with the power she has witnessed coming from students, as many are contacting their local politicians.

“The students did a really amazing job of encouraging the House of Representatives to pass the SAFRA bill in the past,” Teal said. “I believe the September 17 bill was really historical in the way that it was written and the type of investment that it gave students to help their secondary education.”

For the bill to be finalized, students have to come together to work on getting the bill through the Senate. They have developed key points that will be reflected in the legislation that is set to appear on the ballot on Oct. 15.

“Because of the way their system works we need the Senate to pass the bill as well and they haven’t done that yet,” Teal said. “As of now the bill hasn’t even been written, so our tactic is to go out and use the same method [of contacting local politicians] to encourage the Senate and really show that they have students that are affected by this issue and really want to see it passed.”

During the week of action in Massachusetts, Sen. John Kerry told the students calling in that he was undecided about whether or not he was going to support a student version of SAFRA. After a few hours, he then asked the members of USSA to stop calling because he made up his mind that he supported the bill.

In Santa Cruz, Tommy Lee, the local member of the USSA board of directors, has been doing his part to help during “Raising Pell” week by calling and faxing the district and federal offices. Lee says he understands the hardships that come with trying to get financial aid.

“The money from the federal government allows students to focus on their academics and not have to worry about the trouble of paying off their student loans and that’s something that I want to strongly support,” Lee said.

This bill has become especially important in California because more students are trying to find financial aid in a state that is experiencing a severe cut to its education budget.

“Over the phone I have tried contacting the financial aid office and it took 10 days for them to call me back,” Lee said. “They have a lack of services because they have an overwhelming amount of people trying to call the office, and this is not just in Santa Cruz, this is happening more and more in campuses in California.”

Ann Draper, the director of the financial aid office at UCSC, has been seeing more applicants for financial aid this year because of the state of California’s economy.

“We are seeing more people with need for financial aid because of the economy but that doesn’t mean financial aid is harder to get,” Draper said. “Because the fees went up for UCs and the Pell Grant went up, we are getting more grant money to help support students that doesn’t have to be repaid.”

Even in economic hardships, the students involved in “Raising Pell” have proven that financial aid is still possible.

Teal is proud of the way the students are fighting for their right to financial aid and for affordable education all across the country.

“It’s inspiring to see the work students are able to do and to be connected to a really long tradition of students organizing and students demanding better from politicians and really driving the social conscious of the country,” Teal said. “I really enjoy being part of that movement and inspiring the next generation of folks who will be doing this as well.”

Members of UCSC’s Student Union Assembly speak at the UCSA meeting. This year’s conference resulted in the creation of a campaign to save Cal Grants. Photo by Jenny Cain.

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) voted in early August to campaign for the preservation of Cal Grants by pushing the state to amend its constitution.

The campaign came in response to Gov. Swarzenegger’s proposed state budget revision that opts to phase out Cal Grants starting in 2011. If Cal grants are not made permanent prior to that date, nearly half the undergraduate population at UCSC could eventually be affected.

“We want to move the Cal Grant from discretionary to something that is funded, mandatory, year after year, as part of the budget,” said Victor Sanchez, Student Union Assembly External Vice Chair.

UC Santa Cruz played host to this year’s UCSA congress. Each year UCSA holds a congress during which students from 9 of the UC campuses can discuss the pressing issues affecting higher education. Students from all UC campuses attended this year’s congress except those from UC Davis.

During a UCSA congress, which usually lasts three days, students receive information about issues affecting higher education and learn how to organize campaigns around those issues. At the end of every congress students vote on one yearly campaign.

Last year, students at the congress voted to focus on the College Affordability Act (CAA), which would freeze tuition for five years and create revenue for higher education by placing a 1% tax on Californians making over a $1 million a year. Despite the bill failing to pass, UCSA members said that the campaign organized around it allowed the assembly to develop legislative connections and networks.

“[Last year’s] campaign itself was successful about raising awareness, about the cost of college and the need to address college affordability issues,” said Matthew Palm, the SUA commissioner of academic affairs. “It’s unfortunate the bill did not make it as far as it could have. But we built up our voter registration base and our outreach base. We didn’t get what we wanted but in the process we really built up our organization capacity.”

This year, Sanchez, along with other members of UCSA, voted for a Cal Grant preservation campaign, hoping to salvage the grants before they completely phase out. Although Gov. Schwarzenegger approved not to cut Cal Grants for the upcoming fiscal year, the program is expected to face major losses in the near future.

If legislation preserving Cal Grants is successful in the primary election next year, it will “theoretically” take affect Jan. 1 2011, Sanchez said.

While the types and dollar amounts of Cal Grants vary depending upon qualifications, eligibility and the type of degree being pursued, undergraduate students with a 2.4 GPA or better, who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as well as the Cal Grant application can potentially earn up to $9,700 a year. This amount my go towards private school tuition and fees, or provide up to $7,788 a year towards UC system-wide fees. According to a university statement, 7,000 UCSC students receive a combined total of $30 million dollars.

The proposal to cut funding for the grants is partly due to the states GOP members’ attempt to close the state’s $26 billion dollar deficit. By reducing future expenses, like educational grants, the government has a greater ability to reduce its current debt and borrow more money through financial markets. But the state government must prove to the financial markets that it is solvent, or able to pay back its debtors when debts are due.

If Cal Grants are completely eliminated, however, Sanchez says that other types of grants will likely garner more interest and, thus, the budgetary pressure will simply be displaced, not eliminated.

“Those who get UC Grants most of the time don’t get Cal Grants,” he said. “The financial aid system is a delicate balance of grants and aid. If the Cal Grant aid gets eliminated, other grants would need to fill the void.”

In a June 19 letter to students and their parents who receive Cal Grants, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission Diana Fuentes-Michel explained that a lack of government funding will affect the program.

“The [State Budget Conference Committee] has authorized…Cal Grant programmatic reductions, beginning in 2010-11 [which include] freezing the income eligibility for Cal Grant A recipients at the 2008-09 level and reducing the maximum Cal Grant award for all private college award recipients by five percent from $9,708 to $9,223,” Fuentes-Michel wrote.

On the first day of congress UCSA members expressed their understanding of the state budget crisis, but said that they remain unforgiving of major cutbacks, like the potential elimination of Cal Grants, that only affect students.

Although SUA commissioner Palm originally hoped to run with a campaign that would generate revenue for higher education he said that he was happy about the success of the preservation of Cal Grant campaign among UCSA members.

“I’m happy and excited and hopeful about the outcome. We are going to try and put [Cal Grants] in the permanent budget…by amendment and try and get it passed in the state legislature,” Palm said. “The fact is there has been a lot of talk about decentralizing the Cal Grants… as a way to save money.”

Palm said some a proposal to save money would be eliminating the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC). By reducing that body, he said, and putting the awards process in the hands of individual financial aid offices on each campus. This is called the localization of the cal grants.

Palm said that in spite of budget cuts individual financial aid offices do not have the staff to take on the work of CSAC.

Congressman Kevin Deleon and Victor Sanchez (left), the external vice chair for UCSC’s Student Union Assembly, discussed the drastic cuts at a state budget hearing in early June. Photo by Arianna Puopolo.

To fix gaps in budget, state might cut integral financial aid program

For over a month, legislators in Sacramento have been debating California’s financial future, working to balance the 2009-2010 state budget.

But some of the proposed cuts hit too close to home for California’s higher education students.

Among the myriad of proposed cuts being tossed around in Sacramento is a proposal from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that would eliminate new Cal Grants from being issued in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, effectively phasing out the program by 2011.

Should the proposal to pass, it would result in a cut of [grants?] $201 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year and $478 million in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to a press release from the University of California Student Association (UCSA).

At UC Santa Cruz, the elimination of the Cal Grant program “would be a significant loss,” said Ann Draper, the director of financial aid at UCSC.

“Currently about 4,000 UCSC students receive Cal Grants and the total amount UCSC students received in 2008-09 was about $26 million. It represents 1/3 of total grant aid UCSC students receive,” she said.

The cuts to the Cal Grant go beyond just those students whom receive aid from the program.

“Eliminating the Cal Grant program would affect all students who receive grant support since UC, federal and state grants are pooled to ensure students of equal financial means receive similar grant awards at UC campuses,” Draper said. “About 7,000 undergraduates – roughly half of our undergraduates- receive grant support at UC Santa Cruz. All of these students would be impacted.”

Matthew Palm, the Commissioner of Academic Affairs (CAA) for the Student Union Assembly (SUA), believes it’s “hard to overestimate” the impact these cuts could have on UCSC students. “Cal Grants are one of the most effective programs,” Palm said referring to the efficacy of the program at getting students financial aid.

Unfortunately, options for replacing the Cal Grant remain limited. “There are no viable alternatives to offset the loss of this critical source of aid funding,” Draper said. “For reference, campus and private scholarships currently provide less than $6 million annually for our students. It would take several years and a significant effort to replace this loss.”

Palm also saw dramatic effects resulting from the slashing of Cal Grants.

“Without Cal Grants, people would be taking out a lot more loans,” he said. “Hopefully people won’t be dropping out.”

While it is unclear how long it will take for legislators in Sacramento to come to a consensus on the state budget, it is clear that the Cal Grant does have its share of supporters in the state legislature.

“We’re fighting like hell to protect it,” said Assemblymember Bill Monning (D-Santa Cruz/Monterey/Santa Clara). “Education is the future of this state and its economy.”

Monning, along with many of his Democratic colleagues, has voiced support over keeping the Cal Grant program intact. Their general proposal, however, remains under fire by Schwarzenegger and Republican leaders, whom oppose the introduction of any new taxes in this draft of the budget.

Yet the harsh reality is California’s $24 billion deficit needs to be closed somehow. “There’s no program immune from cuts,” Monning said. “There’s no magic wand, there’s no magic piggy bank.”

While lawmakers tackle the budget in Sacramento, Palm said that is will come down to how much pressure students put on the state legislature.

Both he and Draper urge students who wish to keep the Cal Grant program intact to contact their local state representatives. “We know we can do it,” Palm said. “We just gotta make it happen.”

Congressman Kevin Deleon and Victor Sanchez (left), the external vice chair for UCSC’s Student Union Assembly, discussed the drastic cuts at last week’s state budget hearing. Photo by Arianna Puopolo.

Twelve hours after leaving UC Santa Cruz, the caravan of student government officers and interns prepared to leave Sacramento behind. Hundreds of UC, CSU, and California Community College system (CCC) students filed out of the Capitol Building, clinging to the hope that legislators might heed their testimonies. 

“What is at stake here,” UCSC Student Union Assembly (SUA) external vice chair Victor Sanchez said to the budget committee, “is more than the future of our system of higher education, but that of the state of California.”

This public hearing, during which the public was allotted time to address a special budget committee, was scheduled in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent budget proposal.

The proposed statewide cuts would cut academic preparation programs; slash UC, CSU and CCC budgets; eliminate the Cal Grant; cut subsidized child care programs; release nonviolent prisoners one year early; eliminate the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program; shut down 80 percent of California’s state parks and beaches; and reduce or eliminate various public healthcare programs.

Originally scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. with comments from advocates of public healthcare for children, the hearing ran several hours late. Students and employees of California higher education systems formed a line obstructing any walking room in the halls outside the hearing facility. 

Of 11 UCSC SUA members present at the Sacramento hearing, only two had the chance to deliver their personal stories and pleas to the committee.  

UCLA student government representatives drove to Sacramento the night before the hearing to have their chance at the podium. Only one of the four who made it was able to address the budget committee.

UC San Diego students who flew up for the hearing chose to reschedule their flight home to accommodate the scheduling delays, only to ultimately miss the hearing when student testimonies were delayed until late into the 4 p.m. hour.

The chancellors of the CSU and CCC systems and UC President Mark Yudof addressed the committee before students entered the chamber.  

Yudof attempted to convince Chairwoman Noreen Evans, of the 7th Assembly District located near Napa, of the importance of protecting Cal Grants and warned against the overarching implications of such a budget cut. 

“This will be, in many ways, an unraveling of a master plan in terms of access research and all the rest of what went into that great master plan that California adopted about 50 years ago,” he said, referring to the establishment of the California Master Plan for Higher Education (CMPHE).

The CMPHE was developed in 1960 by a survey team organized by the UC regents and the California Board of Education. Its goal was to define the objectives of the UC, CSU and CCC and establish the admissions standards to be used throughout the UC system. Additionally, the CMPHE established that every Californian is entitled to higher education regardless of economic standing. 

This focus on accessibility to higher education for all Californians was central in Yudof’s argument against the cuts.

“The hardest hit is on the low-income families, with [annual earnings] under $60,000,” he said. “That’s just the reality of it.”

UCSC SUA treasurer Eric Piccolotti is a second-year feminist studies major affiliated with College Ten. He was one of several students denied the opportunity to speak at the budget hearing due to time restrictions.  

Piccolotti said he trekked to Sacramento because Cal Grants and curricular diversity are important to him, and he fears the implications of the proposed budget cuts to these areas.

“Education is a right for all Californians,” Piccolotti said. “These budget cuts are infringing upon that right.”

Olgalilia Ramirez is the director of the Office of Governmental Relations for the California State Student Association (CSSA) and an alumna of CSU Sacramento. She attended the budget hearing as a liaison for CSU students.  

“It’s important that students give their story, because they’re the only ones that can give that story and that is very valuable for the community to hear,” she said. “[It is also important] to get across the message that investing in students is an investment in California’s future economy and also our present economy.” 

Ramirez and Clais Daniels-Edwards, the legislative director of UC Students Association (UCSA), collaborated to organize students present at the hearing.  

As an indication of solidarity between California public higher education institutions, students wore yellow bands on their wrists, which they raised every time a fellow student said “California” during their testimony. 

Callin Curry, a UCSC first-year and SUA intern, relayed his personal story to the committee. 

With the proposed elimination of Cal Grants, and having come out of the California foster care system without family to help him cover the costs of a university education, Curry faces an ominous future. 

“With the government’s current proposal, a dream 19 years in the making [of attending a four-year university] is slowly being destroyed,” Curry said. “I have protested as I have watched higher education take those devastating cuts, with affordability and access decreasing exponentially. This current situation is one of the biggest threats to education.”