I was invited to Cal State L.A. for a "Walk of Shame."
On a three-hour tour of the academic pride of L.A.'s Eastside, I met a laid-off sociology lecturer and saw overcrowded classrooms where students were being turned away from courses they needed to graduate.
I visited with a stressed-out librarian and counselor, both of whom described the effects of the latest round of budget cuts and fee increases.
"I've never seen it this bad," said the counselor, Larry Grijalva, a 23-year-veteran and graduate of San Diego State. "We can't even get kids into the remedial English classes because they're all full."
I like to think of Cal State L.A. and the 22 other campuses of the Cal State system as the workhorse younger siblings of the state public university system.
The richer University of California might win the Nobel Prizes. But it's the Cal State system that gives us most of our police officers, teachers, nurses, social workers and probation officers.
"This has always been a place where working-class people could get an education and contribute to society," said pan-African studies professor Melina Abdullah, who led the "Walk of Shame." "If you take this away, you're relegating them to jobs at Wal-Mart and fast food."
These days, the big budget shortfalls in Sacramento have left our Cal State brothers and sisters unprotected. All Californians should fight to protect them. But the students also need a few lessons in standing up for themselves -- or else they'll always be on the losing end of those Capitol funding brawls.
Five faculty members and students made this point on the first day of classes, as part of a day of protest at college campuses all over the state. They held up a series of five words on signs outside the main parking lot:
"When Will You Fight Back?"
The sense I got: not soon.
The thousands of students I saw rushing to classes on Thursday did not appear to be ready to rise up in revolt. The majority had managed to get into most if not all of the classes they needed. If they got into all their classes, where's the big prob?
Cal State L.A. is a commuter campus, for the most part. Only a handful of students have time really to mount any kind of organized resistance to higher fees, reduced faculty and shorter library hours.
