Bay Area Colleges Take Part In Effort To Reclaim Higher Education

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – Students and faculty at college campuses around the Bay Area watched a webcast on Tuesday, part of the launch of a national campaign to reclaim higher education.

On the 57th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, campus faculty leaders from across the country launched a new initiative aimed at fighting back against inequalities and the rapid paring back of access to public higher education.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

Dr. Liz Cara, president of the California Faculty Association at San Jose State University, said this comes at a time when many in higher education feel they're under attack.

"Because of the cutbacks and a philosophy of corporatization and privatization of public education, faculty's voices are being diminished and attacked," Cara said.

San Jose State University Anthropology Professor Jonathan Karpf said the way things are going, only the wealthy will have access to public higher education in the future.

"Student fees have gone up around 242 percent since 2000," Karpf said. "And if the Democrats aren't able to get the tax extensions in November and there's a billion dollar cut to the CSU, the board of trustees has already said that there will be a 32 percent fee increase on top of the 10 percent increase that's already planned for the fall. So the students are seeing fees go higher and higher and they're getting less and less for their money."

The Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional.

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