Students, parents and concerned citizens gathered in front of SRJC’s Doyle Library on March 1 to protest the budget cuts and increasing tuition on higher education.

The protest, known as Occupy Education, was an offshoot of the well-known Occupy Wall Street movement. The biggest criticism of Occupy Wall Street is that the group doesn’t have a clear message. “That’s what’s wrong with the movement,” said Paige Picard, an organizer of Occupy Education.

However, Occupy Education is fighting specifically for education. Students are going to lead America one day, and “taking away their education is idiotic. It’s really just hurting our country,” Picard said.

The protestors listened intently as ESL instructor Raquel Rasor, American history instructor Marty Bennett and English instructor Marco Giordano, talked about how they are teaching 20 percent more classes with no pay increase. SRJC student Florian Tinschert delivered a speech about the impact these budget cuts are having on the students, teachers and departments of SRJC and the entire California school system.

When the speakers finished, more than 35 students, teachers and citizens gathered their signs and marched to the Santa Rosa state office building, chanting catch slogans like, “Education should be free, if you want democracy!” and “Money for schools and education, not for wars and corporations!”

The protestors received supporting honks from passing cars, and near Santa Rosa High School, a student climbed to the top of a traffic light and whooped his support.

Hope and anger filled the air while the protestors marched south toward the state building, but as SRJC student Eric Anderson conveyed, that wasn’t enough. Anderson thinks the problem with the Occupy movement is that there is no leader. “It’s important to have someone speak for the group,” he said.

Edward Mendoza, a concerned Santa Rosa resident and protester, had a different take. Not having a leader is what made Occupy so great, Mendoza said.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the civil rights movement all but came to a halt. It’s impossible for the system to decapitate the movement because there are no leaders.

In front of the state building, the protestors performed a skit that was inaudible to most of the protesters because of the street noise. After that, each protestor was given an opportunity to voice questions and concerns to the officials within the building.

As SRJC students protested, college students and concerned citizens across America also protested on their own campuses against budget cuts. This nationwide protest served as a precursor to raise awareness for the larger protest, Occupy the Capitol, held country wide in state capitals on March 5.