On Thursday, a protest spanning the city started at San Francisco State University. The protest, hosted by the CFA and Student Union, was held to fight against budget cuts and tuition hikes at California State University campuses, along with other issues, including Palestine and the LGBTQ+ community.
Other universities, including UC Berkeley, California State University, Sacramento and San Jose State University also held protests against Trump, budget cuts and other issues. They were all part of the national “Day of Action for Higher Ed.”
At 11 a.m., around 100 people gathered on the grass for a teach-out across from Malcolm X Plaza to sit and listen to multiple speakers express concerns about free speech.
Associate Professor Blanca Missé said campuses are supposed to be sanctuaries for free speech, regardless of views.
“This is the way they’re recognized by the Constitution of the United States and the Supreme Court,” Missé said. “And our goal here is to make sure that students in this campus, faculty and staff, feel free speaking their mind — they don’t feel retaliated or intimidated, and they can find the necessary solidarity to fight repression.”
Brad Erickson, a liberal arts lecturer and the CFA chapter president, said he wants to fight against the estimated 8% state funding cut that will result in another tuition hike and the loss of faculty.
“We need to prioritize teaching and learning as always. There have been cuts across the board, but they’re disproportionately carried out on the backs of lecturer faculty, continued faculty who are already among the most exploited, poorly paid educators in the state of California right here at San Francisco State,” Erickson said. “So that’s part of the problem. We need to invest in our people before we hire more managers and administrators and/or build new buildings.”
Former Humanities lecturer Sean Connelly, who was at SFSU for nearly two decades lost his job last semester, resulting in losing his healthcare as well.
“I no longer teach here. I was not rehired at the end of fall because of budget cuts after 17 years of teaching,” Connelly said. “There are plenty of other people like me who lost their jobs. Hundreds, actually, just at SFSU in the last year since fall.”
Chris McCarthy, an astronomy professor, dressed up and walked around as a grim reaper to symbolize the CSU administration while holding a scythe to symbolize budget cuts that could led to more faculty being lost.
“It’s a hundred faculty that we’re going to lose if this proposed budget cut actually is approved and we’ve already lost about 250,” McCarthy said. “We can’t sustain losses like that and continue as an educational institution. We can’t serve our students, we can’t do our research, we can’t function as a university with cuts like that.”
James Martel, a tenure-track representative for CFA, said tuition hikes lead to student debt.
“Students take out loans to pay for that debt, but they get nothing for it because they won’t spend that money on instruction,” Martel said. “That is obscene. That’s something we absolutely cannot do anymore. It’s totally unfair.”
Students like Char Bennett, an American studies student, worry that this financial burden will affect their future.
“I have to pay more in tuition, so I have to work more and take out more loans, and have to pay those off afterwards,” said Bennett. “It affects the way that I look to my future and potential jobs that I have to get because I’m going to have to take a higher-paying job that might not align with my ethics.”
Another issue that the CFA addressed during the teach-out was about the LGBTQ+ community. Amanda Chang, a music student, expressed her discontent for President Trump’s administrative actions.
“He is trying to ban transgender rights and transgender care, which is making me angry,” Chang said. “Angry because everybody deserves equal protection.”
The recent events in Palestine were also addressed. SFSU Professor Persis Karim expressed feeling horrified by the conflict in Gaza.
“How could one not feel anything but horror and disgust that our country is supporting the mass slaughter of innocent people, starvation for 45 days now and also the ridiculous amount of bombs that the United States is spending at the expense of our own domestic priorities?” Karim asked.
Around noon, a large group of CFA protesters wearing different shades of red moved over to Malcolm X Plaza holding megaphones, instruments and posters with phrases like “Stop the cuts,” “Defend higher ed” and “Gators bite back!”
Several clubs were tabling along with the CFA, handing out pizza, coffee, snacks and flyers to students.
Throughout the speeches on stage, several chants were repeated throughout the crowd — a recurring one being, “The people united, will never be defeated,” followed by drum banging, trumpet blares and people cheering.
Vi Lee, a political science and Asian American studies student, felt concerned about the lack of immigration courses scheduled for Fall 2025, especially with immigration issues at the forefront of Trump’s platform.
“I think for Asian American communities a lot of people don’t understand how these things can affect them and affect their families,” Lee said. “And I think it’s really important that people do know that so they can protect themselves, protect their families. Make sure they know their rights, make sure they don’t have to talk to ICE. They don’t have to open the door to ICE.”
The effort proceeded with protesters gathering together in groups at 1 p.m. to walk over to take the M Muni Metro line to Civic Center Station.
The first group of protesters there, about 100, formed a ring across the street from City Hall and shouted chants.
“Where did all our money go?”
“No AI!”
“When I say ‘I want’, you say ‘teachers!’”
The crowd doubled in size as the second group arrived with megaphones, a drum and a trumpet. Many of the cars, trucks and buses that drove by honked in solidarity with the protesters.
“We had a fantastic event this morning on campus. We had a teach-out, we had a speak out, we had a die-in,” Erickson said, “We called and texted our legislators and said, ‘not only do not the CSU, increase the CSU budget and bring back the people you cut, bring back the programs you cut, support the students in the way that you’ve taken away.’”
Ali Noorzad, an organizer from the Student Union and Young Democratic Socialists of America member, gave a speech that drew from his experience as a current student.
“I’m here because I’m pissed the hell off,” Noorzad said. “These university leaders are not making cuts because they need to, they’re not making them because they think it’s necessary,” Noorzad said. “They’re making them because they think they can continue to spend all of our money on management and investment accounts rather than the students and faculty that make this university work… We believe with every fiber of our being that this school belongs to us.”
Next was Omar Zahzah, an Arab and Muslim ethnicities and diaspora studies assistant professor. Zahzah acknowledged that the department he taught in would not exist without the student activism that happened on campus at SFSU. He continued, saying he felt dehumanized by the CSU’s decision to corporatize instead of protecting its faculty and students.
“When we abandon hearts and minds for dollar signs, we walk down a troubling road,” Zahzah said. “In 1968, strikers also confronted an educational model that put the profits of a few over the empowerment of the many. They said no. Today, we’re also here to say no.”
For the final 10 minutes of the protest, the crowd marched together, shouting “No cuts, no fees, education must be free,” and finishing off the protest with, “We’ll be back.”
Michal Krupa • Apr 21, 2025 at 4:41 pm
If students care so much about the school could they:
– Learn to flush toilets so that the bathrooms don’t constantly smell like stale urine?
– Stop using the computer lab to play computer games and instead invest their time into giving back to the community?
– Scan their clipper cards on public transportation so that Muni can adequately gauge peak usage and adjust routes appropriately?
K thx