Students have joined forces with faculty and staff as part of a massive walkout at ten University of California campuses on Thursday. Student protesters say budget cuts have negatively impacted the quality of their education. Youth Radio spoke with 20-year-old Tu Tran who is going into his fourth year as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. Tran is also the executive vice president of the Associated Students of the University of California.
What role have you played in organizing the walkout?
I haven’t played any direct role, but ASUC has helped a lot. For example, we help ... to provide mics for the rally, and to build a bridge between students, faculty, and administration members. We also have been spreading the word, sending emails to our undergraduate population ... in support of the walkout. It shows that we stand in solidarity with the people who support this.
What reasons have students shared with you in terms of why they’re walking out or helping plan this walkout?
We have a diverse campus so it’s hard to tell you what they all think. But it boils down to being upset. Not only as a vice president, but as a student at Cal, we’ve had enough with the budget cuts. It hasn’t been since the 1930s that such a drastic increase in tuition [has been proposed]—it’s been proposed that tuition would increase 32 percent.
How have UC budget cuts impacted you and your Cal education? Please give specific examples.
I’ve seen services drastically decrease. We used to have computer stations and now we don’t. We use to have set library hours and now we don’t. It’s getting harder to get into undergraduate classes. I was looking into saving this year and now it’s looking hard to do so. What I don’t understand is, if we are going to pay more to close the budget, we should still have the same services -- but in this case we are getting the short end of the stick.
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