About 30 of them charge up the stairs in the Administration Building, holding up their signs, chanting. One of them has a megaphone and shouts their slogans: “What does FAU stand for?” Students answer, “Find another university!”
But the megaphone was a deal-breaker, as was the moment the students entered the Office of the Provost — who wasn’t even there. Campus police told the group to leave the building a few minutes later. So the students left and started marching across campus, down the Breezeway and into the Student Union. Then they returned to the Administration Building, where they had started their protest around 2:30 p.m., 30 minutes late.
This isn’t the first protest FAU’s seen for its newly formed late-March guidelines which call for an 11-student minimum for graduate classes and a 24-student minimum for undergraduate classes. If classes don’t meet this minimum — and if they didn’t meet them last summer — the classes will be cancelled this summer. According to the Bursar’s Office, which partially manages FAU’s financial affairs, summer 2011 offered 2,972 sections to students. This summer offers 2,117 sections. Sections are actual classes, but there might be several sections for one class.
Monique Paramore organized the protest, runs its Facebook page, and created the group’s online petition. As of press time, the petition had 731 signatures, its current goal being 750. Paramore was the first person to sign the petition on March 27. Paramore got her undergrad degree in May 2011, and had three graduate classes lined up for the upcoming summer semester — all of which were cut.
Senior Matt Cabell attends FAU with the help of his GI Bill, which says he has to be a full-time student every semester to qualify for living expenses. Cabell was protesting since he might have to find a new place to live now that his summer’s studio art classes have been cancelled — this won’t be easy since he’s already under a lease. While the cuts could decide where Cabell lives this summer, other students are watching their expected graduation dates get pushed back.
Paloma Salas is one of them. The junior anthropology major has been waiting over a year to take six of her required credits. Now, those credits won’t be offered in the summer or fall.
“That sucks,” Salas said. “We, as students, want to learn.”
Other students are simply planning on leaving. One of them is freshman Kenneth Martinez.
“I’m not able to take core classes for my major over the summer,” the linguistics major said, who’s also on the GI Bill and at risk of losing his summer living expenses. “I planned on staying here for my master’s too, but I’ll look for another school if this keeps up.”
Watching from the sidelines, spectator students weren’t too happy with the protesters, or their message. Junior studio art major Jacob Allen mused, “These are the same students who will be skipping class all summer.”
When the protesters entered the Student Union on the final leg of their pilgrimage, they met more students who didn’t want to hear their message. Jacques Nicely, a senior criminal justice major, said they were protesting in the wrong place.
“I think it’s annoying,” freshman political science major Derek Discipio said. “There is a better way they could have done this.”
ED. NOTE: In a previous version of this story, it was incorrectly reported that Paloma Salas needed 6 credits to graduate. In fact, Salas needs to take six required credits, which haven’t been available for a year, according to her.
Adela • Apr 14, 2012 at 10:12 pm
First mission accomplished. Visual Arts Department has been approved to add some classes back to the summer schedule. Thanks for the hard work guys; keep it up! this is not over yet! we have to keep fighting for the other departments! 😉
Monique Paramore • Apr 13, 2012 at 5:48 pm
The purpose of this rally was to bring awareness to the situation. We do have suggestions and we just want the university to consider listening to them. Unfortunately, the university hasn’t shown interest in our suggestions or that of the faculty. I understand there have been cuts but the administration did not go about making cuts appropriately and they have continued to ignore the suggestions of the students and faculty. You should really look into what we are saying and join in our protest because this affects all of us. The administration should not have treated the university with a one size fits all mentality. Our programs and departments are all different. We offer classes on different schedules. The manner in which classes were cut is a little ridiculous. They cut courses that don’t even cost them money because they would have been taught by doctoral students as apart of a graduation requirement. Those classes are free to the university and therefore the university actually profits from them. Does this make sense James? They also cut classes that are offered on a two year rotation. If you waited two years for a class how would you feel James? It is not the cuts we are upset about, it is the manner in which they were made that cause concern.
James • Apr 13, 2012 at 1:24 am
I wish some of these students would learn how to Google before they get out and protest. The university is short millions of dollars even WITH higher tuition fees. Clearly a small group of people doesn’t change that financial situation. Where are the solutions from the students? Where are their bright ideas?
Adela • Apr 13, 2012 at 3:03 pm
First, it is not just about protesting. Second, they are trying to speak with the President to find a solution to the problem. Third, did you know about summer/fall class cuts? Maybe you can also learn how to Google to find out how this new norm is affecting everyone at FAU. It is not a new problem to the University. We have new stadium which is called the dead Nascar! Why the university spent millions of dollars in a stadium when they are short in millions of dollars for education? Hmhmhm to bring money to school but the stadium is called dead Nascar by many student and faculty member at FAU. So the stadium for the moment is a big time FAIL to our university. I do prefer my classes and learn instead of a stadium with no life. A construction of new dorms will start and it is supposed to bring money into school but again remember we are short in millions of dollars for education purposes….ugh
If you can’t find info in Google here some facts: Fine art students will no longer have studio classes during summer. Writing labs, research methods, multimedia classes among many others are cut during summer and might be cut during fall too. Not just students are affected by this new policy many professors will no longer have jobs for 3 months. This norm was applied by the administration. Sounds fair to you? The students that are raising their voices are an example to many other FAU students. They are not just protesting they are looking for solutions to their struggle. Students are asking for basic human rights: Education. They want to learn, have classes during summer/fall , and they want to graduate on time. Student government doesn’t represent student struggles at all. Students at the rally want solutions from the president and they are willing to work to find solutions too. So James what are your bright idea to the problem? Do you have any? If you do you should join them and share your bright ideas!
James • Apr 13, 2012 at 6:00 pm
1. Life isn’t fair. The state of Florida doesn’t know how to handle money at all.
2. Once you sit down with the President of FAU you’ll say to her, “I need classes to graduate, you need to fix this now.” She’ll say, “I’d love to. Show me where the $30M is going to come from and I will.” You need to have a good answer for that.
3. The money for the stadium could not have gone to your classes. Banks don’t loan millions of dollars to pay the salary of professors. If you could, every university would just do that and nobody would have this problem. Think about it.
4. I’ve already made my suggestions. Good ones. FAU got them last week. I’ve already done my part to help out students.
5. What’s going to happen is that all students at Florida universities will have to pay a ton more money in tuition for fewer classes. There is no way to escape that in this state. It’s not an FAU problem. It’s a Florida problem.
Jenny Fromdabloc • Apr 14, 2012 at 2:48 pm
I tried to read that but my god are you bad at English or what?
Jessica • Apr 14, 2012 at 10:09 pm
are you bad at reading or what? lol
Monique Paramore • Apr 13, 2012 at 5:35 pm
That was the point of this rally James. We would like our suggestions heard. We would like our questions and concerns answered. I am not just asking for my classes back. I understand cuts need to be made. My concern is how inefficiently the university decided to accomplish their goal. There are several ways the university can survive the budget cuts without resorting to cutting courses. Some course were cut that doctoral students were supposed to teach in order to graduate, which means the class was free and actually profit for the university. Because the administration decided to use this one size fits all mentality several classes have been unnecessarily cut. The point of this rally James was to bring awareness to the situation and hopefully open the eyes of the administration.
paloma salas • Apr 12, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Such a funny thing to see the UP fall into sensationalism. hopefully in the future you would refrain from creating bias and omitting facts. i do need six credits that are not given on summer neither on fall; but i still have other classes to take. in addition to, our current situation as a students doesn’t “sucks” ( word i did not used.) Our situation as a student is a dreadful and frustrating issue because students are afraid to protest for a basic human right;education.