Resistance Efforts Mount During Student and Faculty Week of Action

With the support of CFA members and Students for Quality Education (SQE), several CSU campuses united in protest last week during a week of rolling actions that spanned from Monday through Thursday. Our message was clear: Liberate the CSU.

While each campus faces its own unique challenges, numerous students rallied around issues that have resonated across many campuses, such as budget cuts, faculty and staff layoffs, ICE raids, and the elimination of DEI initiatives.

“CSU administration at state and local levels has been acting in concert to privatize public education, and the students continue to respond in kind,” said SQE intern and CSU Los Angeles student Ashley Gregory. “Acting with coordination across multiple campuses, students made it clear to cowardly administrators and private capital that we will not stand for their agenda of putting profits over education. The students of the CSU system will continue to organize to liberate public education.”

At CSU Bakersfield and CSU Los Angeles, faculty and students pivoted their protests toward financial mismanagement and the need to protect our state funding.

Currently facing a $5.2 million shortfall, CSU Bakersfield faculty and students know that a cut to the budget could mean drastic faculty layoffs, reduced student resources, and delays in graduation due to a shortage in course offerings. They centered their rally around the Spring Budget Forum, which took place shortly after their action.

CSU Long Beach and CSU San Marcos’ faculty and students committed their efforts—to protecting Ethnic Studies courses, DEI intiatives, and the rights of undocumented students, while acknowledging the serious impact that a budget cut would have. With nearly 10,000 undocumented students in the CSU system, we recognize the need to ensure their safety and access to the resources they need to feel supported.

“CSU Long Beach admin have been stagnant with their response to a new Trump administration and are failing our undocumented community. Not being transparent with ICE response plans breeds uncertainty, uncertainty breeds fear, and there is no place for fear in the CSU,” said Luis Oritz, SQE intern and CSU Long Beach student.

“The CSU Time, Place, and Manner policy has banned our First Amendment right without shame. Asking for approval to hold a protest is not constitutional, constraining where to hold protests on campus is unjust, and banning the generational use of the bullhorn displays an abuse of authority that rolls back decades of college actvism.”

CSU San Marcos faculty and students also protested the recently issued Time, Place, and Manner violations to those advocating for undocumented student rights on their campus. These alleged violations highlight the sharp contrast between CSU administrators’ stated concerned for students’ well-being and their actions to suppress any dissent.

Early last Thursday, Sacramento State students protested against the crackdown on free speech by installing artwork on the doorway of Sacramento Hall, the campus’ administrative building that houses the President’s Office. In the afternoon, they tried to hand-deliver a paper flower to President Wood’s office that laid out their concerns to him, but were told to leave.

Despite the many challenges we face, the efforts of faculty, students, staff, legislators, and community members have had some positive outcomes. At Sonoma State, amidst a layoff and program closure crisis, 11 of the 47 tenured faculty who received layoff notices were offered an extension to their contract until May 29, 2026. These include faculty from all departments slated for closure, including Geology, Women’s and Gender Studies, Philosophy, Theater Arts & Dance, Economics, and Art History.

SQE intern and CSU Bakersfield student Chinazo Okey-Dike encourages us to stay in the struggle as we work to liberate the CSU. “The statement ‘faculty working conditions are student learning conditions’ rings true during difficult times on our campus. Students and faculty are tired of the conditions that we are being placed in and it was time to speak out. Working alongside CFA members to protest, unite, and fight against the detrimental budget cuts that are negatively affecting students’ access to quality education was an eye opener for everyone on our campus. This is just the beginning; our work is not yet done.”

On April 17, the National Day of Action in Higher Education, we will join with union allies at public and private colleges and universities across the nation to further the democratic mission of our institutions. Interested faculty should reach out to their chapter leadership or field representative to find out about how they can participate in local and regional actions planned for that day.