Students Protest Cuts at CSUN Extension Campus

The event was billed as a pep rally for graduating students at the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge, but the mood was bittersweet as the students ended up giving tearful testimonials to the school.

Lesley Tibbits of Ventura, who organized the rally to protest cuts at the extension campus, said she was only interested at first in attending the traditional reception held for graduating seniors.

A recent graduate in liberal studies who plans to teach school, Tibbits learned that the school had barely survived the latest round of state budget cutbacks, and the reception had been a casualty of the fiscal crisis.

“I decided that we needed a rally to help our morale more than we needed a reception,” Tibbits said. “I had no idea our budget situation was that scary.”

Nearly 100 students who attended the rally listened as classmates gave tearful testimony of the need for a four-year public university in the county.

Patricia Hill of Oxnard, president of the school’s Associated Students, said attending the local campus had provided her with a way out of a difficult situation.

“Five years ago, I was a welfare mom with six children and had a future that looked like I’d stay on the welfare roll,” Hill said.

“Today, I’m a taxpayer and receive no state subsidy,” she said, adding that she never would have been able to commute 55 miles to attend classes in Northridge.

Telling a similar story, Pat Ringler of Oxnard said she would not have been able to complete her degree if she had to leave her two children at home to commute to Northridge.

“If I went to Northridge, who’s going to watch my kids, whose car am I going to use?” she asked.

Ventura campus Director Joyce Kennedy said the Ventura campus will apparently survive the current round of budget cuts, thanks to support from the Northridge campus.

But the already tight budget may face additional cuts, she said. “And we’re already operating on a bare-bones budget.”