SPORTS Gladiators pitch to 4-0 victory
April 5, 2012 Hayward, California
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NEWS Lilly Ledbetter shares her story
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CSU colleges freeze enrollment spring 2013 By Andrew Quirk STAFF WRITER
The California State University system, still debilitated by substantial budgetary cuts, has recently announced a system wide enrollment freeze for next spring. Due to this proposal, the vast majority of CSU colleges will freeze applications for the spring of 2013, with exceptions for a few select campuses. This is only the beginning. If Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed tax initiative does not pass on the upcoming November ballot, 20,000 to 25,000 qualified students in the fall of 2013 will be barred entry to state universities. A look at the numbers shows that to date, the Calif. state system has sustained through 750 million dollars in cuts. Our system will face an additional $200 million in cuts if voters do not pass the governor’s tax initiative. These cuts come at time when some CSU presidents are recieving pay raises. According to CBS news, “Trustees approved pay raises for two college presidents. They awarded a base salary of $303,660 for CSU East Bay President Leroy Morishita and $324,500 for CSU Fullerton President Mildred Garcia, as well as $12,000 car allowances and $60,000 housing allowances for each.” With students and faculty being told that budgetary cuts are a necessity in this economic climate these funds being allocated are more than questionable. Chabot professor Begonia Cirera explains: “Education money seems to be utilized to balance the budget, and that the funds coming from collecting due fees from oil companies in CA would generate enough money to all four branches of public education that we would not have to discuss the cutting of classes, and jobs; or the freezing of enrollments for many years to come.”
Tuition is also on the rise, up 9.1 percent due to a vote by Cal trustees this fall. A typical student will pay 5,970 dollars to attend. This is more than triple the cost of what it cost only a decade ago. William Tierney, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, states that this would be a, “devastating move for the state, which should instead be increasing student enrollment by 100 thousand students a year to keep pace with the states economic outlook and employment projections.” With our educational futures resting solely on Brown’s proposed tax initiative the situation seems bleak. Chabot students and faculty have risen to the cause and are continuing to fight to bring much needed revenue to California colleges. On March 5, students gathered their collective voices and rallied together, marching to the capitol to make their outrage heard to our state officials. Concerned faculty and students have channeled this energy and taken practical steps to rectify this problem. Proposition 1522 a proposed measure that would tax oil companies funneling in billions of dollars to community, state and private universities. Volunteers are working now to get the necessary signatures for this proposition to make its way onto the ballot for the next presidential election. Professor Kip Waldo warns, “Understand the problem … don’t think it will happen at Chabot alone. Chabot is a very good starting point. They need to go out into the communities. “Everybody who went to high school in this area can get the students and teachers activated. We [need to] make it hot enough that they would have to begin to tax Apple, Intel and Chevron. Let’s get the wealth back into the hands of people who deserve it and need it.” To contact the reporter, email him at andrew_quirk@hotmail.com.
CSU Enrollment Fall 2011
Undergraduate: 367,139 Teaching Credential: 7661 Other Post Baccalaureate: 5165 Graduate program: 46,569 Total: 426,534 Map of CSU campuses
Chabot professor strives for change It was not until 1998 that he jumped into city government to try to make changes he thought Chabot College professor Fran- were necessary to improve the cisco Zermeño is looking to re- city. tain his position as city councilSaid Zermeño, “Back in man for the city of Hayward in 1998, that is when I made the dethis year’s election. cision that I wanted to be more Zermeño was born in Jalisco, involved, so I applied for the Mexico but ever since he moved planning commission knowing to Hayward, California in 1979, that I needed to become more he has adopted Hayward as his visible in the community so that home. people would then recognize the After graduating from UC name Zermeño. Santa Barbara with a Master’s de“I was a business owner at gree in Spanish he was hired by that time, I used to have a video Chabot College and then began store, but I sold it a year ago. his love for the city of Hayward. Now my wife and I have a transBy Bernard Miranda CAMPUS EDITOR
Zermeño speaking on behalf of the DREAM Act at Chabot College.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EASTBAYCITIZEN.COM
lation business. So, I wanted to be part of the planning commission, but I wasn’t chosen, and the following year they had an opening and I got the spot, so I was on the planning commission for 8 years. So then I thought I like this stuff I am going to run for office and then I did.” Just having love for your city didn’t prove to be enough, as Zermeño was not able to win the first time he ran for elected office. He realized that being an elected official meant that he had to represent all of Hayward not just a certain population within. SEE Zermeño : page 2