Fee waiver camp-out continues

By Brent VonCannon
The Collegian

With a tent set up and colorful signs such as “Will Work for Fee Waivers” displayed, a group of Academic Student Employees are staging a camp-out protest in the Free Speech area on campus.

According to the protesters, student employers were not given the fee waivers they say were promised to them.

“We’re going to try and keep this up as long as we can,” Guiseppe Getto, one of the camp organizers, said. “Our plan is to make as much noise as possible.” A graduate student, Getto is a four-year teaching associate in the English department.

Academic Student Employees include teaching associates, tutors, graders and graduate assistants. Both graduate and undergraduate students work part-time and make approximately $5,000 per semester, according to the group’s flier. Fee waivers would save these student workers about $1,800 per semester.

The camp-out started last Wednesday in the Peace Garden. Getto said the campus police evicted them from the garden, which is why the group moved to the Free Speech forum. The campers are also restricted on how long they can actually “camp out” each day.

“The chief of police [David Huerta] says it’s illegal and against university policy to camp on campus,” Getto said. “We can use the Free Speech Area from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., and then we have to pack up and leave for the day.”

Getto added the protesters would not camp out over the weekend but would return Monday to resume their protest.

Recent funding decisions instigated the protest, Getto said. President Welty’s fall 2006 newsletter announced an extra $226 million for the California State University system as a result of the new state budget, satisfying the trustees’ budget request.

Getto said his group’s grievances lie with the fact the Academic Student Employees aren’t getting a piece of the new funding in the form of fee waivers, which the group claims were promised by the CSU system if funding was available.

Academic Student Employees are affiliated with the United Auto Workers union. Getto said the union has been bargaining with the CSU Chancellor’s office since the beginning of the semester, arguing the students’ claims. The last contract signed between the student employees and CSU has been reopened, bringing on the new round of negotiations.

Getto was optimistic. “It [the negotiations] could go either way,” Getto said. Although the Academic Student Employees do have the right to strike, Getto said that was unlikely at this point.

“The university isn’t saying they don’t have enough money,” Getto said. “They claim they didn’t agree to the actual fee waivers.”

Getto explained that, based on the contract signed last spring, he and his co-workers were supposed to start receiving fee waivers this fall semester. Under the fee waiver plan, all in-state tuition for Academic Student Employees working at least 10 hours per week would be paid for, Getto said.

Clara Potes-Fellow, spokesperson for the Chancellor, had a different take on the situation. She confirmed that the CSU system is currently bargaining with the students’ union, and that the university did indeed discuss fee waivers with the students previously but that no final decision was made.

“The fee waivers would cost about $15 million,” Potes-Fellow said. “That’s difficult for CSU to grant at this time.” She also said while fee waivers are still on the agenda for future consideration, they were not part of the signed contract.

Another sore point, Getto said, was the CSU trustees’ decision to give senior staff members and other top executives a salary increase.

“All of a sudden we got a surplus, but before that, they [trustees] give the top administrators a 10 percent pay raise,” Getto said, referring to a decision made last year. Getto said he figured the 10 percent annual increase from tables provided on the CSU Web site. Potes-Fellow confirmed the salary increases but not the percentage.

A couple dozen Academic Student Employees are active in the campus sit-in, Getto said. He said shifts are rotated, and some of the teaching associates even hold classes by the camp. “We’re recruiting new people every day,” Getto said.

Andrea Osteen, an associate teaching English 5A, a freshman composition course, was among fewer than a dozen others camping out late Friday afternoon last week. Osteen echoed Getto’s sentiments.

“We found out about the fee waivers last spring, and they’re still not giving them to us,” Osteen said.

One of Osteen’s students, Johnny Marin, joined her and the protest that afternoon. Marin, a freshman, said it was important to stick up for the teachers.

“They need money and they were guaranteed a fee waiver, but it didn’t happen,” Marin said. “That doesn’t sit well with me at all.”

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