In case you haven’t dissected the situation, these 10 percent slashes from community college budgets will hit us hard next semester thanks to Governor Gray Davis. But here’s what you may not know. Not only will this proposal affect our bank accounts, it will affect our time and education.
This is because 226 classes have already been cut. If you think it’s hard to get into a class now, wait until summer school. Summer session offerings have been cut dramatically as well, limiting our ability to finish our requirements with speed.
Hour cuts in the library and Counseling offices have cut back not only our right to plan out our future with Counselors, but our study time. Where can we research and study now if that was our place of preference? Maybe we should all take it upon ourselves to knockon Governor Davis’ door and study in his personal library.
Will anyone want to register when they find out that the lines in the registration and business office will be longer, due to the hiring freeze for all student hourly positions? There are many reasons why we all attend Cerritos College. But now the things that this college funded to support us, the student body, are now being spit on by our government.
Some students attend because they can’t afford a University. How will a raise in our tuition help us with that? Some come to speed up their voyage to a University. Now, because of the lack of classes, we may remain here another year or two longer than we planned.
Some instructors have shared that the cuts make them fearful. Not only for their jobs, but also because they fear that with so many problems arising, students may wash their hands of their education all together.
Everyone should acknowledge the fact that it is our human right to gain knowledge. It is our right to try and build a respectable career for ourselves. The question is, how can we build a successful future, when we don’t have the correct tools? If we work hard to aim for our goals, we deserve acknowledgment. We should demand it. And the fact that
Governor Gray Davis doesn’t, is an outrage. We should be outraged.
Budget cuts will hit us hard next semester, but if we use our biggest weapon, our brain, to fight it, what seems like a stab may merely feel like a scratch.
