Students, faculty and staff throughout the University of California system protested budget cuts to higher education by staging a walkout Sept. 24. Across the state, protests were held at all 10 of the UC schools, many of which were starting their first day of classes.

While students and employees marched across their campuses, six different organizations at SF State held a "speak-out" in Malcolm X Plaza to show their solidarity with the UC protesters. The estimated number of students in attendance ranged from 25-70 students.

Many students walked by the action, and some were vocal about their skepticism.

"Everyone used to get really riled up about protests here, but now everyone's so used to it, it's like we've seen it all before," said Gavin Bruce, a 21-year-old junior.

At SF State, there has been a walkout roughly once a year over the past five years. Despite this, there has been little effect on campus politics since the major protests in the 60s got the school the College of Ethnic Studies.

"I've gone to so many of these things," said M.G. Martin, a creative writing major.

"I don't think this will do anything, because it's students, and they're sitting around like dead fish," said the 23-year-old student, who has attended the university for three years.

"What they don't understand is that we have the power," said Eric Blanc, a graduate from UC Santa Cruz who attended the event to try to foster a feeling of solidarity between campuses. The 24-year-old is a member of the Socialist Organizer, one of the groups that endorsed the speak-out.

However, Kathryn Saavides, a member of the Campus Organizing Roundtable on Empowerment, one of the event's organizers, highlighted the need for more than just student action. Although the event focused on the experiences of students on campus, according to Saavides, the group has bounced around larger protest ideas.

"The public sector is huge -- we outnumber a lot of other groups," said the 23-year-old political science major.

"Some of us have been talking about having a strike -- not just the UCs, not just the CSUs, but the labor unions, too."

"The education system is meant to mold us into complacency," said Morgan McGehee, a junior in the liberal studies department, who had some ideas of his own on what form of protest students can take.

"It's going to take something severe, like not supporting the system by going to classes, but it's not easy to get everyone on campus to just not go to school," said the 23-year-old.