Students for Quality Education (SQE) is a CSU grassroots organization that advocates for student and staff equity and solidarity.
Formed in 2007-2008 by CSU students, SQE has been committed to The CA Master Plan for Higher Education’s principles, which emphasizes an affordable, accessible, quality education for the CSU system.
SQE is supported and incorporated into the California Faculty Association (CFA).
The CFA consists of professors and staff members that work to provide services for students on all 23 CSU campuses.
Taylor Hawkins (Senior, Sociology) and Raymond Gonzales (Junior, Sociology) are newly appointed student organizers for CSU Stanislaus’s SQE chapter.
Both Hawkins and Gonzales joined the organization in August 2023 and actively participate in the SQE’s non-violent movement to enact change in the CSU educational system.
As Hawkins and Gonzales explain, the SQE’s core principles involve following the CA Master Plan For Higher Education’s principles of an affordable, accessible, quality education for all California students and nonviolent political, grassroots organizing.
Furthermore, the SQE’s principles recognize that faculty working conditions affect student learning conditions. They believe that ethnic and gender studies should be preserved on CSU campuses, and work to dismantle the interlocking systems of institutional powers that have created burden for centuries.
“Everything that we do, it’s strictly from a place of advocacy and trying to make sure that people know what’s going on,” said Gonzales.
“At the end of the day, it affects not just the students, but it’s also driving a wedge between students and faculty,” Gonzales added.
The catalyst of this wedge between students and staff year is the annual 6% increase of tuition fees that will continue for the next five years.
“We don’t want the higher tuition, but we also want our faculty to be okay and we want their bargaining to go well too, so just finding that unity that we can and going from there,” said Gonzales.
Hawkins also debunks a misconeption about tuition prices and staff salaries.
“There’s a strategic placement of narrative that they can’t raise the salary for the professors and faculty unless they hike tuition, but that’s not true because there’s a lot of mismanagement of funds and they’ve been trying to hike tuition for a long time,” said Hawkins.
Sydney Aguilar (Junior, Psychology) stands by SQE’s core principles, which are creating affordable, accessible, quality education for all students.
“It’s important to get the quality for what you’re paying for, but also schools shouldn’t make you go into extreme debt where you can’t climb out of it. And I think it should be accessible as well for everyone,” said Aguilar.
She went further in-depth on her thoughts about accessibility.
“Seeing how a lot of universities are switching from online to mainly in person, for a lot of people that’s not accessible, people work, they have kids. They can’t go into class five days a week or even more. So, I think making it accessible for them, making it accessible for people who may have disabilities, I think we can do a much better job while making it more affordable and making it quality,” Aguilar added.
Aguilar transferred from MJC to Stan State this semester and she had to pay out of pocket for tuition.
“The tuition is way more than it needs to be and not everyone can get Financial Aid so it’s not fair that previous generations were able to go to college basically for pennies for the same education and we’re paying like triple if not more than that for the same education to get paid less,” said Aguilar.
As a student worker, Aguilar also believes that student workers should be paid more.
She believes student workers are underpaid for all of the services they provide.
SQE recognizes that the CSU system should be governed by the students, faculty, and staff, rather than by those who seek private profit.
Hawkins also points out that originally, when the CSU system was established, students who enrolled in California universities did not have to pay tuition prices.
“I think Reagan was like ‘Oh you know, we should push undesirables out by making people pay,’” said Hawkins.
During his time as California Governor, Reagan’s efforts to cut UC funding and implement tuition fees had a significant impact on public education and still, to this day, it contributes to students’ financial burdens.
Things such as food & housing insecurity, financial instability, and tuition costs continue to rise.
Federal Student Aid funds has also been slowly decreasing, according to Hawkins.
“Federal Aid is not going to be raised. They think, ‘Oh, Federal Aid will cover it,’ no it won’t… No it won’t. They’re slashing a lot of Aid in a lot of states generally, but specifically, Financial Aid” said Hawkins.
“Also, I wanted to throw out there that 1 in 10 CSU students experience homelessness during their time in college and 40% of CSU students experience food insecurity and skip meals so that they can pay for books or rent, so it’s just, how are you free? You can’t feed yourself,” added Hawkins.
However, SQE’s efforts have stopped the rise of tuition costs in 2018.
Although with it’s 2018 success, Hawkins pointed out that a lot of people disregarded SQE’s ability to fight back against the rising of tuition prices.
Another SQE victory is the implementation of the AB-1460 California Bill.
Both the SQE and CFA worked together to sponsor this bill, which was successful.
The AB-1460 Bill requires that all CSU undergraduate students are required to take at least one Ethnic Studies course.
Additionally, SQE fought for the 2021 ASI resolution.
The resolution’s goal is to defund campus police and redirect those funds to underfunded student services and it has been endorsed by the Academic Senate.
“I think that’s important to keep everybody safe because lot of times when you have issues somewhere, it’s because there’s not enough resources and redirecting that money towards resources that would help support students,” said Hawkins.
SQE also launched the campaign, “No Harm, Disarm!”
The “No Harm, Disarm!” campaign page states, “We demand our CSUs disarm CSU campus police and security, and invest in mental health counselors, mental health crisis intervention teams, black resource centers, and mandatory de-escalation and unconscious bias training for all campus police and security.”
“It is a really big issue. It’s widespread throughout the CSUs and it does need to be further addressed, even more than it currently is,” said Gonzales.
SQE is also dedicated to anti-racist practices and serves as an avenue of support for People of Color.
Gonzales decided to join SQE because of the common interests he had with the organization.
Prior to becoming a SQE member, he was a student organizer and a member of the student Government at MJC.
During his time at MJC, he participated in several events which focused on education, equity, and advocacy.
When Gonzales transferred to Stan State, he connected with department chair of Sociology, Dr. Ann Strahm who told him about SQE.
“Advocating for people who may not be comfortable with their voice, or can’t speak up because as students, we have a decent amount of power right. We can say a certain thing that maybe faculty or staff won’t be able to say. So, being able to use that point to just push things forward is something that I really enjoy doing. And that’s ultimately what drew me to SQE,” said Gonzales.
Hawkins learned about SQE through Dr. Jennifer Strangfeld.
“I think what gave me the most incentive to join was that it kind of shifts collective power from an idea to a reality. It’s exciting to be a part of change and a part of advocacy and a part of someone who’s for an organization that is pushing for equality,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins and Gonzales announced that there will be a SQE tabling event on Monday (9/11) set up in the quad, in which Hawkins will be taking the lead.
Hawkins alongside Dr. Ann Strahm, Dr. Jennifer Strangfield, and several other professors will be participating in this event to create solidarity and spread awareness of what is going on in the CSU system.
There are also many SQE flyers posted on Stan State’s campus with QR codes that make virtual public comment accessible.
Through the QR code, there is also a direct link to contact legislators.
On Tuesday (9/12), a Board of Trustees meeting will take place in which it will determine if the tuition hike will occur or not.
The CFA, SQE, the Teamsters, and several other unions will be rallying at the event.
