College Students Prepare to Unionize

Some of the students who have for months protested plans at Santa Monica College , will host peers and faculty from across California Saturday with the goal of establishing a new, statewide student union.

Conference organizer Harrison Wills said an independent union representing the more than 2 million community college students across the state, would be set up like collective bargaining organizations for laborers, and would give students the opportunity to make demands of administrators and college contractors, such as text book publishers and food vendors. He also envisions localized chapters making endorsements during elections for college district's governing boards.

Wills said the day-long event Saturday was open to "anyone who is committed to fighting the attacks on public education."

A new website devoted to the cause says the union would be an alternative, more proactive, form to existing bodies such as the Associated Students.

Wills said he was inspired to establish a more radical organization for students after serving a term as president of Santa Monica College's Associated Students. Those organizations are too closely tied to the colleges, he said, and don't talk about solutions such as "strikes, direct actions, demands."

“Our student governments are mostly administrating us instead of fighting for us in our districts," Mikhail Pronilover, a Santa Monica College student who led , said last weekend during a gathering of community college students in Northern California.

The agenda for Saturday’s conference, which will be held at at 1900 Pico Blvd., includes presentations on student union models in Quebec, Chile and Brazil, where "student unions have proven time and time again that students en masse have the power to win against those who govern undemocratically."

Student protesters at Santa Monica College have expressed frustration that the Board of Trustees voted earlier this year to offer 50 higher-priced courses this summer not subsidized by the state without first vetting the plan through existing student and faculty associations. Even after the board later voted to , students said they felt as if their concerns had been ignored.

"You can't just ignore the Associated Students, the student body, the faculty… we should have a democratic government," student Ernesto Moreno told the board in May.

Santa Monica College is one of 72 community college districts in California, together they comprise the largest system of higher education in the world. Since 2009, however, they have shed more than 300,000 students because the students cannot get into classes, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year.

A by Santa Monica College administrators found that this year Los Angeles area colleges are offering one-third of the classes offered in 2008, the loss of about 168,000 seats. More cuts are likely if the governor's proposed tax increases are rejected by voters in November, when higher education would sustain almost $700 million in "trigger" reductions.

Elected officials at community colleges across the state are coming up with a myriad of solutions to deal with the dwindling state funding, but many of them are unpopular among students who demand "free" and equal access to public eduation. At Santa Monica College, some students have come up with solutions of their own, such as reduced salaries for some of the highest-paid administrators.

"A massive student march on Sacramento has become a tradition in recent years. But students are ramping up efforts to keep year-long pressure on legislators," the San Francisco Bay Guardian reported May 13.

Wills expects at least 75 participants at Saturday's conference. For more information, visit castudentunion.wordpress.com.

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