Antonio Hernandez /Roundup
Normally, a meeting to educate students on a budget doesn’t start with a children’s game. Yet that is exactly what happened Thursday, as the Student Organization For Success (SOS) attempted to break the ice amongst attendees.
The meeting began with students hand in hand, spelling out success one letter at a time around the circle.
Hosted within English room 1202, the classroom seemed the perfect place to educate students on the severity of educational cuts affecting community college campuses across the state.
“We need to cut fatter parts of the California budget, things that are not absolutely essential. We need to make the (California) legislature realize exactly how important education is,” said Emily Harake, 19, an American Federation For Teachers (AFT) intern.
The AFT is a union that represents educators across the state. The SOS was created under the guidance of the AFT, in hopes to motivate students to speak up about the current budget cuts affecting the Los Angeles Community College District
Other AFT interns, all who took turns pitching ideas on how to organize and educate further students, flanked Harake as she spoke.
The union has reached out to other community college campuses as well, creating small groups to organize and educate students. Many of the students at the meeting were stunned to hear of the cuts to the upcoming Winter Session at Pierce.
“I need to take Biology over the winter, if that doesn’t happen I won’t be able to transfer on time,” said Ari Cohen, 19, when asked to share how the budget cuts were directly affecting him.
“I guess I’ll take it at Santa Monica College,” he added, still a little bewildered by the concept.
On August 19, the LACCD Board of Trustees agreed that individual colleges could reduce or cut their winter session if needed. Pierce College will offer approximately 50 percent of their original winter classes, mostly consisting of core classes such as math, English and speech.
Joseph Catling, also an AFT intern, shared his problems with the budget cuts.
“I was planning on transferring out after this fall, but Summer session B was cancelled and by the time I had found out session A was already full,” he said.
Also on the agenda for the SOS was the creation of a town hall event hosted on Pierce Campus.
The organization plans to bring the event to the Great Hall in October. Planned speakers would be professors and elected officials, who would be on hand to answer students questions.
Despite the planning and discussion, some students still felt unclear on what they could actually do to sway the legislature.
Cohen stayed after the meeting had adjourned, watching as other students began shuffling out of the room.
“I’m still not quite sure where we would get the money to curb the budget cuts, we’ll just see what comes of this,” he said.
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Daniel Levin, 31, explaining his personal experiences with the budget cuts at the September 10 Students Organized for Success meeting. (Courtney Coles / Roundup)