By Andrew Walzer

      What can you do?  You’ve read about the state budget crisis and the pending drastic cutbacks for community colleges.  You may have already had your course load cut (or even eliminated) for spring semester, so you know this is for real.  You know your job is in danger.   One option for part timers is to avoid reality,  ignore the crisis, and scramble to keep our heads above water.  We know how to do that: we’re used to scrambling, so what if we have to scavenge a little bit more?  Yes, this is an option, but not a very healthy or realistic one.            

      Rather, we need to face reality squarely and act to protect our livelihoods and access to higher education for hundreds of thousands of low income youth.  Part of our tendency to live in denial might be due to the fact that we don’t often believe that there are effective and concrete actions we can take to affect change.         

      I, for one, believe there are.

      We need to organize.  From past experience we know that educators and students are a powerful political force in this state. We have had consistent victories over the past several years in protecting funding for education.  We know who to target -- the governor and state legislators. We have several mass actions planned for next month  to put pressure on them.  There are a number of very immediate and concrete actions you can take:       

1)  On Monday March 17 Santa Monica College faculty are going to Sacramento to demonstrate against Governor Davis’ proposed cuts in funding for community colleges.  We will be participating along with community college faculty, administrators and students from around the state.  Our goal is to get 50 faculty members from Santa Monica College so that we can charter a bus.

2)  On Friday March 28 we will be participating in a demonstration at Davis’ Los Angeles offices against the budget cuts.

3)   We are also planning meetings with our local legislators asking that they  make the protection of funding for community colleges a priority.  
      To get involved, plan on attending one of two meetings.  See box below.

Save our Jobs Meetings

Þ     Tuesday February 25 at 5:45pm in Business 111.

Þ     Wednesday February 26 at 12:00pm in Science 251.