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Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Volume 163 No. 37 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
News
A&E
Opinion
SJSU addresses campus climate with an open forum
Cabaret makes its way to the Hammer Theater
Community college may not be for everyone
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PHOTOS BY ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
(Left to right) Akhil Rao,Paul Lechtenberg, David Moreno,Camden Forbes, Brenna Sitta, Antonia Rock, John Pfenning, Werner Goveya, Annie Huang and an unidentified individual proudly hold a 26-foot-long petition in front of the Arch of Dignity on Tuesday.
Union lays it all out for administration By Anahi Herrera Villanueva
and program cuts next year,” Lechtenberg said. STAFF WRITER Khanh Weinberg, a California State University Employee Union In an effort to gain spokesperson alongside economic security and Lechtenberg, has reached have a contract for student out to management and workers, the California State organized students to stand University Employee’s Union up for their rights. delivered a petition to San “We are challenging José State University along (CSU’s) to be bolder and with 17 other university have a more thoughtful and administrations these past strategic view on building up two days. the university, to attract more California State University students to pay and open the Employee Union was formed door for students who need to support 16,000 California access to quality education,” State University (CSU) Weinberg said. support staff members of the Currently, the CSU 23 CSU campuses working manages an investment with six different bargaining portfolio of $8.7 billion, units that cover academics according to the California State University Employee Union petition. However, students are noticing the lack of support from their management and an overall decrease in hours. Akhil Rao, a fourth year business management information system student and organizer, has seen this in his workforce. “I work at (Spartan Village on the Paseo), so over the summer my hours were fine but there was another team who had their hours cut significantly and I know it (financially) impacted them greatly,” Rao said. Rao says because students are only getting paid around the minimum wage and the increased price of living, it has added stress to those whose hours were affected, impacting their mental Organizer Akhil Rao talks with San José State University Chief of Staff, Shawn Whalen in the president’s office. health. and operations, according to a California State University Employee Union web page. Paul Lechtenberg, California State University Employee Union labor relations representative for Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, CSU Monterey Bay and SJSU was present in the delivery of the petition. “Today, we will be delivering our petition (to President) Cynthia TenienteMatson and we are calling CSU leadership to be better leaders,” Lechtenberg said. “Student workers deserve a fair contract and career staff deserve a fair salary step.” For SJSU, student workers, career staff and California
State University Employee Union representatives met up at the Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice where the 26-foot-long petition was unraveled displaying the names of those who signed. “The President can use her leadership role and urge the chancellor and board of trustees to direct CSU negotiations to provide a fair first contract for student workers,” Lechtenberg said. Together, they walked to Clark Hall to hand over the petition to Teniente-Matson who was not present on campus yesterday. Instead, student organizer Akhil Rao handed it to Shawn Whalen, Chief of Staff, and was told
to deliver the petition to Teniente-Matson. As of now with the current increase in the minimum wage, the average student assistant is making $17.00 to $24.00 per hour, according to SJSU’s salary schedule. This petition calls for an increase in wages, a refusal of staff layoffs and a stepby-step process to secure career staff employment, according to the California State University Employee’s Union petition. “Management is offering no wage increase and no parking fee discounts at all at the same time, management blames state funding and predicts there will be layoffs
As of now, to attend SJSU with only tuition and campus fees alone students, without financial aid are expected to pay $8,410 for the whole academic year, according to the SJSU student undergrad budget. For students who live paycheck to paycheck a cut in hours with no wage increase could face a harder time paying simply for their attendance. “You also get zero holiday pay so when it is like Thanksgiving or Veterans Day you lose that entire day of pay,” Rao said. “That makes a difference for college students who are paying everything on their own.” Rao also says that the CSU has treated student workers and career staff with disrespect describing them as temporary workers. With more bargaining meetings to come, those on the bargaining team are focusing on the implementation of a contract which would make it easier for student workers to be seen as more than just temporary. “I hope Teniente-Matson takes our petition seriously and pressures the chancellor and the board of trustees but if she doesn't or they won’t, we aren’t afraid to get more serious and take more serious action. This is the first step but I feel good about what we did today,” Rao said. Follow The Spartan Daily on Instagram @TheSpartanDaily