By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

In a day-long rally, march, and sit-in at the administration building on April 13, 2011, Cal State University Northridge students joined with students at fifteen CSU campuses statewide to protest the ongoing budget cuts and fee hikes across California’s public higher education system. The students were joined by professors, artists, union workers, and Alex Hanna, one of the leaders of the recent Wisconsin capitol protests.

The day began with a modest turnout of under a hundred students at a morning rally in front of the Oviatt Library in the heart of the suburban campus, but as the rally gave way to a march, students getting out of class joined in the protest, and by the time the event reached its final destination, University Hall, the crowd grew to as many as two hundred students. The event organizers, Students for Quality Education, issued a demand for the resignation of CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, whom they refer to as “Chancellor Greed,” for his willingness to slash student services while giving himself repeated salary increases.

Student organizers repeatedly questioned the Chancellor’s current salary of $451,000 per year, with generous perks added in for housing and transportation, while the CSU system he oversees is facing the prospect of a billion-dollar budget cut this year alone. “Where,” asked one of the student marchers, “is the shared sacrifice?”

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