Students for Quality Education

• Our movement for educational justice in the CSU is not new. Students in the 1960s fought to open up the University for working families and immigrant students. They demanded high quality and relevant education, and badly needed student services such as the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). From this movement the CSU grew to become the People’s University, open to all who met the basic requirements for entrance.
• Continuing that fire, SQE is organizing to stop attacks from happening on CSU campuses around the state. We are committed to fighting for a free, accessible, quality CSU for all. By free we also mean free from debt, discrimination, and fear.

View PDF of preface here

• Defund the police and invest in affirming, life-giving resources & spending for Black people, Indigenous people, all people of color, and all people disproportionately harmed by policing & the carceral system.
• We demand an implementation of a student, faculty, and staff curated process of accountability for racial harassment and retaliation outside of University Police. Students, faculty, and staff have faced racial harassment from many, including Campus Police who have faced no sort of proper accountability process due to lack of proper policy. 
• Fund Black Student Resource Centers in collaboration with Black/Africana Studies faculty and students on every campus. Fund specialized resource centers for different marginalized groups on campus outside of multicultural centers.
• Hire more mental health counselors in proportion to the student body to be reflective of the American Psychological Association student ratio guidelines – 1 counselor to every 1k to 1.5k students on campus. 3. Integrate trained mental health crisis intervention teams on each campus that are unaffiliated with policing. Set a student and faculty run, mutual aid based, program for the emergency/blue lights.
• *** Free Higher Education (information after kickoff)

TBD

• Students for Quality Education (SQE) was formed during the 2007-08 school year by students in the California State University (CSU) system to build the student movement for educational rights in public higher education. We were assisted in our efforts by California Faculty Association leaders as we continue this movement fighting for the educational justice students deserve. Members of SQE today are focusing on many issues like abolishing the police on CSU campuses and advocating for more mental health resources on these campuses.
• Tim Sampson started the intern Program to combat critical issues students faced on campus on a statewide level. SQE allows interns an opportunity to gain skills in organizing, leadership, and activism. Working closely with the CFA and with other students on their campus, SQE interns can mobilize support for ongoing issues on CSU campuses. The student internship program was created to help preserve the mission of the CSU as “the People’s University” where students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds can receive a high quality education at an affordable cost with full assistance throughout their journey.

• SQE works with CFA to sponsor California assembly and senate bills. Each April SQE interns work with CFA members to meet with California assembly members to speak and inform them of any bills SQE and CFA have (co)sponsored. SQE’s most notable success thus far has been AB1460 which requires Ethnic Studies be taught in high school and in the CSU system. SQE’s current sponsored bill is AB1997 which would introduce emergency response programs to assist and alleviate campus mental health crises on CSU campuses. These teams would be separate from UPD and would employ trained mental health specialists. In addition, the bill requires the creation of a stakeholders workgroup which would evaluate and report on types of alternatives to the existing emergency response programs on campus as well as create a report that would be presented to the Legislature. The bill has already gone past its initial committee and will be heard again in August of 2022. Information on AB1997’s progress can be found here.

SQE partners up with a variety of student organizations, faculty, and staff on each campus. It is important for our campus communities to get acquainted with one another to not only discuss the campus environment but to also build a trusting bond where students, faculty, and staff feel welcomed. Through coalition building SQE has been able to receive an endless amount of support that has led for bills to be passed, traction to happen on campus, and the formation of new opportunities. To name a few of the organizations we have worked with is Black Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan, La F.U.E.R.Z.A, Black Lives Matter-LA, etc.

The purpose of the CFA Internship Program is to:

1. Increase student awareness of the campus-community labor issues and their impact on the university.
2. Develop an ongoing partnership with the student community in the CSU around issues CFA identifies as relevant to the University.
3. Promote student awareness of social justice issues and labor history.

CFA believes that the interests of faculty and students are intertwined and that opportunities to promote this mutual awareness are critical to the future of the CSU. As a leading advocate for the future of the California’s state university system, CFA has been instrumental in demanding accountability from an increasingly business-oriented university administration and has fought for expanded access, affordability, and quality education for California’s working families.

CFA recognizes its responsibility to continue its work in support of the future of the university. CFA’s intern program creates the opportunity for students to work alongside faculty activists and leaders in order to learn organizing, strategic planning, and leadership skills. Our internship program is designed to provide students with hands-on and formalized training in a variety of areas including:

• Strategic campaign planning and coordination
• Lobbying and political organizing
• Building an organization
• Effective communications

Whether on your campus, in your community, or at the state capitol, you can make a difference. If you are interested in working with CFA and learning how to fight back and win on issues important to faculty and students, this internship is for you! 

• CSU Bakersfield
• CSU chico
• CSU Dominguez Hills
• CSU East Bay
• CSU Fresno
• CSU Fullerton
• CSU Los Angeles
• CSU Long Beach
• CSU Northridge
• CAL Poly Pomona
• CSU Sacramento
• San Francisco State
• CSU San Bernardino
• CSU San Marcos
• Sonoma State
• Stanislaus State
• CSU Channel Islands
• CAL Maritime
• SAN Diego State
• Cal Poly Humboldt
• CSU Monterey Bay
• San Jose State University