CSUN Students Protest Budget Cuts

One after another, speakers bemoaning recent state budget cuts for higher education stood before a sparse crowd of students at Cal State Northridge to advocate the very thing that seemed lacking from the event Wednesday: student activism.

An audience of students that fluctuated between four and 80 over the course of an hour held up a smattering of signs and responded with weak applause. An attempt by one speaker to prod the crowd into a chant of “power, power” drew only halfhearted echoes.

“Well, that wasn’t that great, but I’m sure we’ll get better as time goes on,” said Tom Hoffman, an officer of the campus’ Associated Students chapter, which sponsored the event on the lawn in front of the main library.

All the speakers blamed Sacramento--meaning Gov. George Deukmejian and the state Legislature--for cutting more than $6 million from CSUN’s budget this year.

For the low student turnout at the event, which was advertised as a protest, participants blamed everything from poor advance publicity to competition from Monkey Meet, a rock group performing a lunchtime concert at the nearby Student Union.

“It’s always difficult to get students on campus to come to a rally unless it relates to a group they’re involved in,” said Rick Childs, spokesman for Associated Students.

Amid dire warnings of even leaner times ahead, there was one bit of good news: President James W. Cleary announced at the rally that the CSUN library will be open again on Sunday afternoons, beginning this week.

The library was closed on Sundays during the first month of classes because of budget cuts, but Cleary said the final analysis of the campus’ fiscal situation turned up enough money to keep it open.

Other cutbacks, ranging from elimination of some part-time faculty positions this fall to reducing the number of class sections offered, will continue, Cleary said, calling the 1990-91 budget the worst he had seen in his 21 years as president of the university.

“We’re still hurting and it’s going to be a tough year,” he said.

Speakers said a 10% increase in student fees, to $780 a year for state residents, amounts to double taxation and urged students to complain to their elected officials.