Editor's Note: The post below was sent out by Acting Laney College President Dr. Elnora Webb to campus faculty and staff in support of the March 4 Day of Action.
| By Dr. Elnora Webb Special to TheBlackHour.com |
Laney College Interim President Dr. Elnora Webb speaks at Black History Month Kick-Off with Dr. Karolyn Van Puten and Tamika Brown.
You may ask, how you can further support Laney students in their effort to improve the State’s investment in their education?
As instructors, you could determine the efficacy of rally participation as part of the learning for your courses and tie meaningful assignments to it.
As a classified staff, you could spread the word about this effort and provide meaningful insights into the history of student advocacy and its effect on improving the conditions within education locally and throughout society.
As administrators, you could engage in similar efforts while providing more substantive suggestions for student involvement and the involvement of our colleagues across the college.
We will join thousands of students from across California who have had enough with the divestment in their college education. Many of us have lost patience with the disconnected and broken aspects of the system of financing in this State We call for a prominent and solid commitment to the millions of students who are pursuing higher education. These students seek life-sustaining wage earning careers, the knowledge and skills to build healthy lives and communities, and core competencies to contribute to the innovations necessary to prompt economic, social, and political reforms essential to sustain California and the nation.
It is time for us to stand together to defend education. The community colleges are canceling classes, cutting counseling and other support services. Tens of thousands of students are being denied access to this essential education.
The UCs and CSUs are doing the same, cutting jobs and classes and raising fees beyond the reach of most people in the state.
Attacks [on education] are attacks on our future. People across the state have been under attack – with layoffs, falling wages, unemployment and evictions. And there are fewer public services to provide any support.
We often face these attacks alone, but education unites us all. We need to stand together. We must stand together. We are the family, friends, neighbors, instructors, staff and students who make up this system of education. We are more than six million students in the K-12 system, nearly three million community college students, and 670,000 students in the CSUs and UCs.
Mobilized together, we are a powerful force.
We have a choice in front of us. People across the state know that something needs to be done. We face a looming budget deficit for the years ahead and the attacks will continue. Meanwhile we live in a state with enormous wealth, home to multi-billion dollar banks and corporations.
We have an opportunity to stand together and begin to organize and mobilize our forces. Our future and the future of young people across the state and nation is at stake. What happens next depends on us all.
Thank you very much for your support.
