Two SF State students, interning for the California Faculty Association, have been going into classes and talking to students about some of the consequences of the proposed budget cuts. They urge activism through letter writing campaigns and phone calls to California legislators. And they try to get volunteers to do the same in other classes.

Raul Alcaraz, a 21-year-old junior majoring in Raza studies, and Amal Mongia, 24, dual majoring in sociology and labor studies, compose the nucleus of the Student Coalition to Save the CSU at SF State, and have already recruited about a dozen other students to also speak to classes.

Katherine General, the Northern California student internship coordinator for CFA, said all 23 CSUs have a similar program. She explained the statewide urgency is because the first week in May is when the budget proposal’s final revision goes to the California State Senate and Assembly for approval; Gov. Schwarzenegger has final word June 15.

General said although the program focuses on fighting cuts for next year, the impact from them would affect students’ entire academic careers. “The consequences [of the cuts] are pretty devastating,” General said. “And it’s going to take a long time to recover from them.”

Students who speak in classes for the CFA do so with intructors’ permission. According to Alcaraz, an e-mail was sent at the beginning of the drive to every faculty member at SF State. So far, about 50-60 teachers have responded agreeing to the presentations.

In the classrooms, the interns and volunteers also pass out cards in hopes the students will fill out their contact information and check boxes that correspond with how they would like to get involved.

“It definitely came of interest to me.” said Brett Rogstad, responding to a presentation by Alcaraz in Professor Saul Steier’s Images of Eroticism Wednesday evening class. “Because, honestly, I haven’t heard too much about the cuts besides, I mean, rumors.”

Rogstad, a 24-year-old senior in cinema arts, said what evoked his interest most was the appearance that legislators are taking the easy way out of the budget problem. “[The legislators aren’t] looking at the long term effects, said Rogstad. “They’re just looking at what can be done right now.”

During his presentation Alcaraz said that in addition to the 10 percent tuition hike planned for the 2004-2005 school year – 40 percent for graduate students – the budget calls for students exceeding the required amount of units needed for graduation to pay out-of-state student tuitions. This amounts to $6,000, to $7,000 coming out the students’ pockets, he explained.

Steier said Alcaraz’s presentation was helpful in trying to make the cuts “non abstract.” “It’s going to affect [the students] financially,” he said. “It’s going to affect their life-choices. It’s going to affect them in all kinds of ways.”

Brett Krass, 30, a senior in industrial technology said Alcaraz’s speech “definitely hit home,” and thinks most of the students felt the same way because there are things that you need to relate sometimes; people think things are out of the realm of what they can do, Krass said.

Steier’s class is the first time Krass said he had heard anything about the budget, either from students or teachers. “It seems like every time we turn around there’s less and less and it’s costing more and more,” Krass said.

According to Mongia, much of focus during the first three weeks of the presentations was in trying to fill two buses provided by the Associated Students for the protest in Sacramento Mon, March 15. After that, the program will continue with letter writing and phone calls to state legislators.

Critical Thinking in Ethnic Studies Professor Larry Salomon invited Mongia to speak to his class. After Mongia’s presentation he told his class there’s two strategies in activism: ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’ The outside, he explained, is getting on the buses, the protests, the marches; inside is lobbies, letters, phone calls, organizing others.

“You’re not required to do this, but I hope at the very least people will write a letter,” he said to his class. “You have to be an activist now – by necessity.”