FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13th, 2009

Contacts:
Leslie Manjarrez, UC San Diego Campus Organizing Director & 3rd Year, (760) 996- 5520
Desiree Prevo, UC San Diego 3rd Year, (408) 250-3522
Christine Byon, UCSA Organizing Director, (626) 941-4784

OVER 1,000 UC STUDENTS RALLY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION Students Hold an Action at the Students of Color Conference

San Diego, CA – Over 1,000 students from across the state will gather at UCSD to protest the massive budget cuts from the legislature and the proposed 30% fee increase and 4,600 enrollment cut from the Regents that will be voted on later this week. Students are calling out to decision makers be actual leaders and find long-term solutions to the budget crisis. Instead of leading, the Regents and the legislature have using band-aid solutions of raising fees and implementing furloughs that have threatened the quality of the UC system.

Students will be coming to UCSD and the protest as a part of the 21st Annual Student of Color Conference sponsored in part by the University of California Student Association (UCSA). Students will be coming to UCSD and the protest as a part of the 21st Annual Student of Color Conference sponsored in part by the University of California Student Association (UCSA). Students are demanding:

Leslie Manjarrez, UC San Diego Campus Organizing Director and student at UCSD organizing the conference, explained the importance for doing an action at the conference: “This is an action that symbolizes our solidarity with each other across diverse lines including those of ethnicity, socioeconomic class, education, and country of origin, this action is one that shows the willingness to work and the hope for the future of all those in our community who come after us into the higher education system that should be working for us as the future of this country."

This year, UCSA has been working on proactive solutions to the crisis by working on a campaign to mandate the Cal Grant in the state legislature, and will also be holding a month of action during March to do a mass mobilization against the budget cuts at Sacramento.

This Sunday from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm, more than one thousand students will rally at Geisel Library on the UCSD campus and march to the 5 Freeway Bridge with student representatives from across the UC system. “It is absolutely a necessity to proceed with an action for the Students of Color Conference, it is symbolic of all the UC's and our various campaign's and voices into one movement of solidarity under something that effects us all which is access and affordability. It is a time for all of us to join forces in solidarity and show the individuals that try to separate us that we can and will come together,” says UCSD third year Desiree Prevo, who is one of the main organizers for the conference.

The rally will include speakers Andrea Lee Smith, who is a Cherokee intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist, will be speaking on non-violent forms of action and the ways in which communities work together and the strength of women in the movement. Jorge Mariscal, the UCSD professor of literature who serves as director of the Chicano Studies program will be speaking about the status of the educational system and movements in the history of UCSD. Victor Sanchez, UCSA President and fourth-year student at UC Santa Cruz to talk about the importance of mobilizing to Sacramento and the Regents meeting.

At the end of the march, students will be releasing balloons to symbolize students of color and other disadvantaged communities who have been blocked from the UC system.

The University of California Student Association is the official voice of over 200,000 undergraduate, graduate, andprofessional students from the eleven UC campuses. It is our mission to advocate on behalf of current and future students for the accessibility, affordability, and quality of the University of California system.

###