Common Sense: Five questions for last week’s student protesters

By Harrison Leonard
March 8th, 2010
Section: Opinions

Harrison Leonard
Contributing Columnist

1. What did you hope to achieve by disrupting classes, blocking traffic, and being distractingly obnoxious? Can you think of any example in recent history where student protests prompted government to do anything, other than arrest law-breakers? I support your right to non-violent expression; despite how pathetic I found last week’s walkouts. But I would challenge you for next time that the most effective form of dissent is rooted in reason and rational persuasion, not primitive barbarism.

2. Are you aware that when state-funded schools like CSUN are allocated money to run properly, and people don’t attend, they do so at a cost to the school and the state? Your demonstrations on Thursday cost CSUN money, and will probably be factored into your tuition next year. Even if the differential is small, the principle remains the same: you helped to hike your own tuition by protesting tuition hikes. Well done.

3. Do you understand that actions have consequences? How many of you complaining about budget cuts also voted to enact those state ballot propositions in 2008, which cost California taxpayers over $13 billion? Think, please. If you vote to increase funding in one area, funding needs to be cut elsewhere. Do you want change you can believe in? Elect out the irresponsible Democrat supermajority in our state assembly that got us into this mess. They “pay” for programs we cannot seriously afford by disguising spending increases in the form of bond initiatives, which we will never realistically pay down. They tell the people they can have everything they want, when they want it, and leave the credit card bill to younger generations. But I suspect these are the same politicians that many of you continually reelect out of inertia.

4. I have talked to countless CSUN students who complain they can’t get classes, and blame it on the budget crisis. But when I ask, “Did you try this Saturday class, or this night class, or this class that sounds awful but fulfills the credit you need?” they say, “But I don’t want to come here on a Saturday!” I’m sure some students will always be squeezed out of classes they require, but I’d bet a significant number of people could find classes if they truly needed them. There is a difference between want and necessity. Don’t blame your problems of preference on the budget mess.

5. I saw signs on Thursday that read: “Education Is A Human Right.” Is education really your right? Most industries have a consumer (i.e., you) and someone providing goods for the consumer (i.e., a teacher or doctor). Saying you have a right to education implies you have a right to the labor of another person. Do you really believe that you ever have a right to the labor of someone other than yourself? I can think of 41.1 million black Americans whose ancestors would beg to differ.

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  • Harrison Leonard

    Traveler,

    The Founding Fathers complained in the way that we who opposed the methods of the protesters have been advocating: they wrote letters (i.e., The Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers), petitioned their leaders, and dissolved ties. Our Revolution was quite polite by world standards (i.e., Russian, French revolutions). The Founders you reference here would likely have found this kind of protest to be childish– they believed in reason and rational persuasion. Maybe Jefferson and Henry wouldn’t mind, but Adams, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington sought to halt this kind of behavior when it came to the Sons of Liberty and Shays’ Rebellion.

  • Traveler

    I have been wondering what our lives would be like today if those 18th century political activists who signed the Declaration of Independence had simply kept writing their government, “whining” and “crying” about their mistreatment by that government instead of taking to the streets.

    How different would our daily lives be if George, Thomas, John, and the thousands of others who fought in the American Revolution had been under constant surveillance by the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement and discredited in the media.

  • Elizabeth Harper

    Working “within the system”, so to speak, is indeed good and right, but on its own it rarely accomplishes anything without accompanying agitation to raise public awareness. When conventional means of raising consciousness fail, as they have for the past two years (the movement against steadily rising tuition has been ongoing for at least that long), then more extreme measures are unfortunately necessary.

    If you want to discuss futile measures, then name-calling, inflammatory statements, and oversimplified solutions achieve nothing. This is a time for solidarity, not petty infighting using cheap shock jock tactics.

    Please, consider our efforts with some sense of perspective. Compare one day of disruption with the two or more years many students are forced to spend in school thanks to decreased class availability and rising costs. The walk out was necessary to garner the support students so desperately need. When we fight for our educations, we are fighting for the future of all Californians. Surely, you have cut class for much less than that.

    • Josh

      Conventional means of raising conciousness? Where and when was this going on? All I heard from students was grumbling. No one was taking active steps–no letter-writing, no phone calls, no voting bloc– only a lot of complaining. One event with extreme measures does not make up for two years of no measures at all.

      Do you think elected officials care about some students causing trouble down south? No, because they know those students will merely rally one day of out the year, and not vote. You want to impact a state congressmen? Let them know you will vote, and that you do not approve of cuts to education. Get all 400 of the May 4th marchers together and have them write detailed, snail-mail letters to their congressmen. THAT will get attention, as it shows dedication and intent.

      Banging pots and pans in classrooms? Childish. Sitting in intersections? Disruptive. These are extreme measures no one will remember when the budget is voted on again, and education is further burned as a priority for public funding.

  • Jonathan “Yoni” Mann

    Curtis, I wish it were that simple.

    Read Walter Durkee’s comment, as it demonstrates the basic issue.
    I will expand on his comment.

    I am in the “Millenial” generation you are referring to. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford public education. I am uniting with those who are not as fortunate. Those who work two jobs just to make ends meet. Those who might even have one to two kids. Those who are working hard in college in hopes of reaping positive returns from their investment in a college education. Those who are in college to be able to get a better job than their parents, so their children won’t have to grow up in poverty.

    But even this is not the issue, consider the following scenario:
    Ok — Great! I’ve earned enough money to pay my tuition, and now it’s time to enroll in classes! Nope — no can do, I suppose I will just graduate in six or seven years from now since the prerequisite classes I need are unavailable, I’m delayed another few semesters.

    Unrealistic? I regret to inform you this is the reality.

    So now I’m in my last semester, I’m planning on graduating and begin applying to jobs, but I’ve been crashing classes all day and cannot add the last class I need to add. Perhaps I should enroll in summer session and pay another $1200 for three units (one class), assuming there is space available and I have the money. There is an opportunity cost for having a lack of access to available classes. Adding another year to my college career at CSUN could potentially cost me $30,000-$50,000 in salary that I would have earned at my job straight out of college.

    Unfortunately, tuition is rising. Factor in that many students already work two jobs. Factor in a large cut in the number of classes. Factor in the extra tuition resulting from extra semesters as a result. Factor in the opportunity costs.
    Thank you for attending Budget Cuts 101.
    You will not receive any credit, for this class has just been cut.

  • Curtis

    Excellent article Harrison!
    One point that you did not bring up was that the entire fare was the brainchild of the “UNIONS”. Want to talk an elitist left wing make a slave out of everyone else group, well there you go. That is where the “I’m entitled generation” gets most of its miss-information from. The only time that they get off of their collective butts is when their free ride is over, and they have to start paying their fair share.

    Listen up boys and girls. Education is not a right nor is it free! It is a privilege that must be paid for!

    Your education is an investment in yourself. It is worth every penny you pay for it. It really stinks that the price keeps going up, but Life isn’t fair so get over it. You are only entitled to what you earn so you had better learn to get off of your back sides and start working harder. Perhaps you should not be buying that new phone, iPod, new car, that new outfit you saw at the mall, or whatever that insignificant BS is that you think you can’t live without, and start investing it in your education. Don’t buy that Latté at the Freudian Sip! There are drinking fountains all over campus and it won’t cost you anything. You think you have it rough, just be glad that you do not live in Haiti or Chile right now. Perhaps you want to move to Nigeria.

    Get over yourselves. You are the most privileged well off people on the planet and all you can do is complain about how tough you have it. Oh Please! I cannot wait until you get out of school and your real education starts taking place. You will find out just how unfair life really is and how utterly unprepared you really are. Learn to survive now while the do over’s are still possible. Learn from your mistakes and stop perpetuating them.

  • Harrison Leonard

    Ooh, so we’re reducing people we disagree with as “assholes”? VERY productive Joe. ;)

  • joe g

    Protests will continue.

    March 22: Student convergence in Sacramento for the “March in March”

    April 27 another protest in Sacramento.

    Ignore assholes who try and portray legitimate protests across 33 states as “barbarism”, using a tired right wing technique of distraction. He’s making it about what was “unproductive” in his terminology, so as to ignore what was VERY PRODUCTIVE about the March 4 events.

  • Walter Durkee

    A windfall tax will never work, the same way that lax environmental regulations on American-made autos actually hurt them in the long run. The following explains why all students regardless of race or income should be concerned about these draconian cuts:

    A student applies to and is accepted to a CSU, then enrolls in classes. The student is told that there are not enough classes available for him to be considered a full time student, as a result he is advised to add classes the first day of school.

    Once School starts, 1/3 of all classes no longer exist. In other words, if there were 30 freshman English classes last semester, this semester there are only 20. Yet the school has enrolled the same number of students. Accordingly, the student is unable to add any additional classes and is not a full time student. The student looses his financial aid, is then is evicted from the dorm because he is not a full time student. Ultimately the student looses his parent’s health insurance because he is not a full time student.

  • Walter Durkee

    Good thought-provoking piece. While I may may not agree with everything you are saying, there are some good points that are worth elaborating opon.

    First, something needs to be done about the democratic leadership. Im not saying that we should all of the sudden elect only republican candidates (voting for GOP-ers like Meg Whitman would not automatically solve problems;) but a long hard look needs to be taken at what our democratic leadership has done for us. Unchecked democratic leadership hasnt only destroyed our state, it has also ruined once booming cities like Detroit.

    It isn’t the fee increases that irk me, public education in California is still a discount by national standards; These cuts will never be reversed.

    The most practical answer is to reform higher education, not to tax oil companies until next years budget, and since this wont happen it looks like we will be in this same situation next year.

  • Harrison Leonard

    You are funny, Jonathan. :)

    Of course it crossed my mind! If you write a weekly column, you have to be thinking about issues constantly. But it was low on my priority list and I was saving an article about California’s budget problems for closer to election season. But the protests offered me an opportunity to write about it now.

    And I did take action; I wrote this article, to be viewed by countless people. I stayed at the protests for 2 hours and had myself interviewed by 14 reporters and cameramen. And I have offered solutions: take rational action (i.e., getting your opinion out there in a judicious forum (like a newspaper), and persuade your fellow citizens to vote for different leaders who will change course. In a republic, that is how we enact change. Sitting down in intersections is childish. That is not action, it is a pseudo-statement.

  • Jonathan “Yoni” Mann

    My friends, doing nothing won’t accomplish anything.

    Stephanie — I beg to differ. How many students were talking about budget cuts prior to the demonstration? How many people were offering alternative forms of action prior to this demonstration? How much media coverage an attention did the issue of budget cuts receive prior to these demonstrations?

    How much discussion was there about the budget cuts?

    That’s right. Zero.

    If these protests accomplished one thing, it would be stirring discussion amongst individuals. This opinion piece by Harrison Leonard would not have been written. It would not have even crossed his conscious mind.

    At least these students identified an issue and decided to take action, unlike many of their critics. Instead of yapping at these students, you may want to consider offering a solution.

    ~~~
    “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.”
    -Leo F. Buscaglia

    • http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=73554319705 Joseph

      nailed it!! :) :)

  • baruch

    This is a beautiful piece and hopefully it will aid in opening up the eyes of the many drones here at CSUN

  • Jonathan “Yoni” Mann

    Most students do not have the option of “Saturday” classes or night classes. Also, consider that many students must work to afford the fee increases and pay their tuition. There is indeed a difference between “needs” and “wants”; the latter is not an option for many.

    Unfortunately, this is the reality.

  • Stephanie

    Well done Harrison! Well written and to the point–that’s the way i like it! I sure hope the protesters and their so-called leaders get to read this. I’m hoping it’ll cause them to open their eyes and see that what they did didn’t accomplish anything.

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