California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

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SQE Presents Demands to President’s Office

CSU East Bay’s Students for Quality Education (SQE), a student organization that focuses on combatting issues affecting students in the CSU system, has been targeting classrooms this summer to expose their agenda to as many students as possible, in hopes of gathering signatures for a special petition, garnering support and members.

SQE has sent e-mails to several professors on campus asking to conduct class presentations to inform students about their organization and various demands they have created. So far, only one professor has granted the organization permission to speak to their class.

SQE is known to be a highly diligent and structured student group on campus, who previously organized the Occupy CSUEB Tent City protest on Nov. 16, 2011 where roughly 30 students, along with members of the California Faculty Association (CFA), erected a canopy that university police was ordered to take down by university administration.

The petition states SQE believes CSUEB should meet the requirements for the California Master Plan, a framework meant to outline intended mission statements for the state’s three main education institutions, namely higher education institutions such as the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC), with the major intent that higher education remain accessible, affordable, high-quality and accountable. SQE believes this is a major deficiency in the CSU and their demands will ensure progress is being on behalf of students.

Some of the demands include the university parking fee should be lowered to $60 per quarter beginning summer quarter 2012 from the current $130, President Leroy Morishita to contribute his monthly $1,000 automobile allowance to a scholarship fund, an extension to be made on the unit ceiling for students registering during the first enrollment period of 17 units for one more year, a $40 cap to be placed on the Academic Access Enhancement and Excellence (A2E2) fee and for the immediate termination of University Executive Directive 11-06 regarding temporary or permanent shelters on university property that was first created the day of their Occupy CSUEB Tent City protest.

In order to resolve some of the immediate issues that students are struggling with at the university, SQE members say they feel the five demands they presented in a letter to CSUEB’s President Morishita in the spring will ultimately empower the student body around issues that directly affect them.

“I can say that all these demands were given a reasonable amount of discussion. With these demands, our intention is to delegitimize the president’s administration and the CSU Board of Trustees because we feel that they are not prioritizing student interests,” said Frank Quintana, a 2011 CSUEB graduate and active member of SQE.

SQE is not an Associated Students Inc. (ASI) recognized student organization, meaning they are not registered as an official CSUEB club and are not entitled to any of the benefits provided to clubs, such as funding, accessibility to services, use of facilities and most importantly, recognition in the campus community. As such, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Stan Herbert explains President Morishita would not be accessible for comment on the issue, further verified by members of the president’s office who told The Pioneer the president has not received any such demands from SQE. Herbert said if SQE were a recognized club, their request would be channeled through ASI for accessibility to the president.

President Leroy Morishita was not immediately available for comment.

Herbert also explained these issues would be more effective if they were a club recognized by ASI, and for example, could present some of their issues at ASI meetings and on agendas if they wished to combat issues regarding parking, as those matters he believes already go through a rigorous process by student representatives.

“When the fees were increased a year ago, it included considerable student involvement, including surveys, open forums. So being able to connect with organizations like ASI to find out what’s being done may actually help the cause,” said Herbert.

According to Quintana, the main idea of SQE is that everyone is involved and each individual represents his or her own voice. Based on this, each member presents a variety of issues that students are facing in the university. Often times, this is referred to as a horizontal organization, meaning there is neither a hierarchical nor a patriarchal body that decides for the entire group, as to how the organization is designed.

SQE receives funding from the CFA, which Quintana says provides material resources like chalk, flyers, bullhorns, colored paper, utensils, banners or reimbursements to the collective. An argument that critics of SQE have presented in the past is the notion that SQE is somewhat of a “puppet” for the CFA’s action plans, since many SQE members are also paid interns of the CFA.

“This argument is used often by uninformed student representatives, or CSU and CSUEB administrative representatives to lessen student efforts and in hopes to divide student-faculty solidarity. I say uninformed because historically, SQE has worked on issues that go beyond the faculty agenda,” said Quintana. “It is simply illogical to think that all CFA issues are the same as SQE and vice versa. Our collective at CSUEB has and will continue to remain one that is autonomous and student led.”

As the fall quarter draws near, SQE firmly believes their new, albeit unorthodox method of reaching students directly in classrooms will allow them to continue their pursuit of working to tackle issues in the CSU.

SQE believes by increasing student awareness of what they believe is detailed corruption across the CSU, they can begin the movement towards a more involved student body and gain a following in order to reclaim CSUEB as the “people’s university.”

“Instead, they choose to maintain power at the hands of a few while those who are [reaping] the consequences of their actions are the students. In delegitimizing their structure of government, we create a world of our own, free from their chains of oppression,” said Quintana.

Natalia Aldana contributed to this report.

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SQE Presents Demands to President’s Office