CSU Students Protest Outside of President's House

On Saturday, November 5th, students, faculty, and workers took to the streets of an upscale neighborhood in Turlock California, located about 15 minutes south of Modesto, to protest outside of the home of CSU President, Dr. Shirvani. Shirvani makes around $350,000 a year, and receives more in car and housing allowances than many professors make in a year. Faculty at the university have recently voted almost 90% in "No Confidence" of the President, and student outrage against him is at an all time high.

Faculty at CSU Stanislaus have faced job lay offs of up to 20% and many staff workers have also been laid off or have had their hours cut. For students, fees have risen by ten percent over the last couple of years every year, while class room sizes have risen and many classes have been eliminated. Shirvani has also outright abolished winter term, which for many students means a loss of access to certain classes that they need. This move was also opposed by about 80% of the students, according to certain polls taken.

This action was the most confrontational and militant yet by CSU Stanislaus students, as previous actions have included small sit-ins in early-mid November of the administration building, which resulted in closed door meetings between several students and the President. Nothing came out of these meetings but Shirvani re articulating that he will continue to make cuts and break down the public university system towards a more privatized one. Flipping the popular student slogan around, Shirvani has stated, "Education is a privilege, not a right."

As the recent article on the CFA (California Faculty Association) website stated (http://restructuringcsu.wordpress.com/), Shirvani is leading the forefront assault on education, that seeks to make it harder for working class students to go to college and will push out various majors such as art and philosophy, promoting instead more online courses and bigger class room sizes.

About 30 students protested outside of Shirvani's home for about an hour, and despite at the end three police cars showing up to guard the house (one of them being a CSU Police car - showing again that the university police are NOT NEUTRAL in this struggle), students remained loud and resolved. More actions like this and constant pressure are needed to stop the job lay offs of faculty and staff, the rising student fees, and the cuts to classes and services for students. As many students stated during Saturday, the time for working within the system and writing letters is over. More than ever we need unity between staff, faculty, and students, as we fight against our class enemies within the university.

We have no faith in the student government. They are an arm of the administration. We have no faith in the student leaders among the "movement" which seek to police and direct us - we are not children, we can organize ourselves. "Socialist" student cops are still cops. We have no faith in asking politely for our enemies to change. We will take, we will strike. we will occupy. We will takeover.