Student protestors vent

A romanticized protest reminiscent of the 1960s reemerged at Fresno State Wednesday at “Vent At the Tentâ€Â.

Organizers set up a blue tent near the fountain and asked students to vent their frustrations over higher tuition, less classes, and the financial struggles they̢۪re enduring.

The recent budget cut has affected just about everyone at Fresno State; from students to faculty members, everyone had something to say at the “Vent Tent.â€Â

Lisa Weston, English professor and California Faculty Association (CFA) Chapter President at Fresno State works with Students For A Quality Education, the student group that organized Vent at the Tent event together.

Weston felt the student body̢۪s voice would definitely make an impact on the CSU Board of Trustees, the State Legislature, and the Governor.

“I know that the student body’s silence will be interpreted as acquiescence and acceptance of the harms being done,â€Â Weston said. “Student opinion matters to faculty. Whether it matters to administrators and legislators is a question I can’t answer.â€Â

Weston̢۪s goal with the protest was to show the board how recent cuts impacted students.

“There’s an old adage I remember hearing when I was a child: doesn’t care will be made to care,â€Â Weston said. “It has seemed lately as if the CSU Board of Trustees, the State Legislature, and the Governor don’t care about the welfare of the University.

Events such as this one try to show that cuts—so easy to make when they are just numbers on a ledger—have consequences in real people’s lives. And those people have a voice, and a vote.â€Â

Students were happy to have found an opportunity to voice their opinion.

Whitney Thompson, president of the Students For A Quality Education (SFAQE) group on campus, oversaw the Vent Tent along with the CFA.

Thompson got involved with the SFAQE after having to continually pay more in tuition every year, including the 32 percent raise in tuition this year.

“Three classes I signed up for were canceled,â€Â Thompson said. “Students are expected to pay more for school and yet it is less quality education than ever before, especially since teachers are expected to instruct 10 percent less.â€Â

Thompson, like other students, had to take out additional loans, work more, and simply hope to get into the classes she needs—she hopes that student protesting will help turn things around.

“If enough students would get involved and pull their fingers out of their ears instead of pretending that this isn’t happening, we could make a change,â€Â Thompson said. “In the spring of 2008, we collected signatures and lobbied legislators and were able to restore $97 million back into the CSU budget, so obviously it works.â€Â

“Students’ voices are becoming more and more important in elections. If all the young people attending community colleges and CSU’s voted for governors and assembly members who made education a priority, we wouldn’t be in this mess,â€Â she said.

Helene Kos, a junior business major, found the Vent Tent while walking to her next class on campus and immediately signed a petition-type flyer that was being offered to students interested.

“I was sick of feeling like I couldn’t do anything about the budget cut,â€Â Kos said. “What is there for us to do? Stay quiet and deal with it? It’s ridiculous that I’m paying more tuition for less education and some of my classes that I need have been cut as well. I signed my name and wrote down how I had been affected today at that tent.â€Â

Not all students felt the same, however.

Business major, Mike Peron, feels that this is all just part of the current recession issue.

“It’s just inflation and that’s the way it goes,â€Â Peron said. “No one throws a fit when the price of a Chipotle burrito goes up 25%. You just have to think of education as food—it’s a necessity.â€Â

Thompson firmly believes that students can make a difference with the budget cut and get things turned around if enough people get involved.

“Today, we got a lot of signatures,â€Â Thompson said. “We can always use more help from volunteers and more people to just sign our complaint forms so that we can have a bigger influence on people at the top who make these decisions.â€Â

Watch The Collegian Online’s coverage of “Vent at the Tent.”