[SOME] College Students Don't Want Governor To Speak At Graduation
Faculty Also Wants Invite Rescinded
POSTED: 3:56 pm PDT June 6, 2005UPDATED: 5:55 pm PDT June 6, 2005
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Students and faculty from Santa Monica College plan to ask its Board of Trustees Monday night to rescind an invitation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to speak at commencement because of his budget policies.The group plans to use the meeting's public comment period to call for the trustees to take back the invitation, the group's Dan Braun said.
The plea is likely to be merely symbolic because the matter isn't on the meeting's agenda. Under state law, the trustees can't vote on matters not on the agenda. The board isn't scheduled to meet again until after the June 14 commencement, according to Bruce Smith, the public information officer of the Santa Monica Community College District.
The group wants a "champion of community colleges" to speak instead of Schwarzenegger, Santa Monica College history professor Kenneth Mason said. It claims that policies backed by Schwarzenegger, a Santa Monica College graduate, have made community college education "much less accessible," Mason said.
Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget calls for an additional $10 million for community colleges for the current fiscal year.
H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said the governor's proposed 2005-2006 budget provides $436 milliion more for community colleges than the current year. He also noted that student fees will not increase, and they are among the lowest fees of any state in the nation.
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