Students protest budget cuts
Nathan Humphreys
More than a thousand students, faculty and staff from Arizona’s colleges gathered at noon Wednesday Jan. 28 to protest the budget cuts proposed by the State Legislature for the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years.Students from ASU’s polytechnic campus expressed their sentiments by setting up a mock cemetery with tombstones reading “RIP Higher Education” and a cardboard casket with “Budget Cut Casualties” written on the side and an Arizona state flag draped over it.
Many protesters wore black clothing and arm bands and carried signs with slogans reading “40% = death,” “We can’t get no education,” and “Change Needs Brains.”
The protest opened with speeches from student body representatives.
NAU student body president Brad Busse told protesters that the proposed budget cuts would mean “death to the university as we know it,” and called on students to hold legislators who have said education is a priority accountable for their actions.
Lawmakers who spoke included Republican Representative Rich Crandall of District 19, who said that the budget crisis is a nonpartisan issue and said that many Republican lawmakers stood by education; Democratic Representative David Schapira, who railed against, “the Republican majority” for proposing “the biggest cuts in education ever,” and Democratic Senate Minority Whip Linda Lopez, who emphasized that the educational budget cuts were a nonpartisan issue and told students that she admired the Republicans she says have stood up to their party leaders on the budget cut issue.
After an hour of speeches, the protestors marched onto the capitol lawn chanting slogans and then officially dispersed with many of the students boarding shuttle busses back to ASU.
