Next Meeting and Updates

Our next meeting with be held in the TCC cafeteria at 12:30pm on Tuesday, February 3rd.

Yesterday we held a semi-informal meeting to make a few decisions. We decided to begin working on several fronts to raise awareness about this issue. Some of us will be trekking down to Yakima to speak at one of the schools o'er there on the eastern side of the state. We hope it will be a fruitful affair. Other members with be working on a poster campaign in which I hope everyone will get involved. Essentially we will be asking clubs and organizations at TCC to place their names on TCC United Against the Budget Cuts posters and hang them in the main hallway of the Building 11 on campus. If we can get 15-2o clubs/organizations involved it would be a major success! We're also working on getting our message out to local campuses. If anyone knows students or teachers at the local colleges please send us an email with their information.

Feel free to email us any suggestions!

We Need Our Help!

Some of you are thinking, "we need our help, what are they thinking?" Remember this is a campaign focused on fighting for our interests, therefore we need to help ourselves. We've been receiving more interest in our campaign than ever before and it is crucial we keep it that way! Stop the Cuts needs you to get involved by building satellite groups at colleges around the state and preparing them for a protest in the relatively near future. We need volunteers to educate their fellow students by passing out leaflets/fliers, holding discussion groups, speaking out in classrooms, ect. Hold a puppet show if you think it will raise awareness about the budget cuts! Please email us at stopthecutswashington@yahoo.com if you're willing to offer up a bit of your time and energy for a worthy cause.

Also, just a side note: TCC should have Stop The Cuts buttons available on Wednesday! Hunt down Mike or Joe to find out how to get your grubby little hands on a must-have fashion accessory!

Small Business Campaign

Tacoma's small businesses enrich our lives daily; we leave their tables, store fronts and tattoo chairs with satisfied grins and the knowledge we have just invested in our community. In return for our investment they color the cultural landscape of the city by adding uniqueness to a market increasingly dominated by big box stores. We share mutually beneficial relationship with our local small businesses, they invest in us and we in them.

In an effort to open the door to a wider layer of citizens TCC United Against the Budget Cuts has begun involving small businesses from the Tacoma area in the Stop The Cuts campaign. Businesses are being asked to show solidarity with the cause by displaying posters produced by TCC UABC.

To draw in more interest in our campaign TCC United Against the Budget Cuts will be getting together will some of our members and trying to come up with ways to sweeten the deal. This could mean offering to link their website to our blog or simply creating an ever-growing list which is sent out to encourage members to patronize supportive businesses. In the meantime, if you walk into a small business displaying our poster let them know you are thankful they support their community.

Stop The Cuts Speaks!

Tacoma Community Colleges students Mike L., Joseph C. and Macy P. made it to the Capitol yesterday to testify in front of the Washington State House Education Appropriations Committee. The committee, which met on Wednesday, heard testimony from a number of Washington State colleges, including: University of Washington, Evergreen State College and Western Washington University. Representatives from the state's various educational institutions each spent their time allotment of roughly ten minutes detailing their strategies for handling the budget cuts and reassuring the legislators of their continued promise to deliver quality education at affordable prices despite the Governor's proposals. They also entertained questions from the committee, including one about the University of Washington Finnish studies program!

Unfortunately the committee had no such questions for the few speaking on behalf-and from-the perspective of Washington State's student body. Regardless the students spoke out against the proposed cuts, imploring the representatives to vote in accordance with the will of the majority and to not pass any budget containing cuts to higher education or social services. Additionally, they called on the committee to pressure Gov. Christine Gregiore to go to President-Elect Obama and request for a bail-out for teachers, students and workers, not Wall Street.


Posted below, and under our video section, is a link to the video of the students' testimony. The students begin speaking at about 1 hr 36 min 20 sec or 1:36:20.

http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2009010077&TYPE=V&CFID=1798439&CFTOKEN=67586938&bhcp=1

ATTENTION: Call To Action!

To all those united to fight the cuts on Washington state's higher education budget:

We have just learned the Washington State legislature is holding a public hearing, on January 15th, in regards to the Governor's proposed 2009-2011 operating budget for higher education. This is an opportunity to speak out against the budget cuts directly to Washington State legislators. We realize this comes with little notice; however, making a significant impact on politicians from both parties will require mass action from students, teachers, workers, union members and concerned citizens. Please take time out of your day to attend the public hearing and let your voice be heard!

When: January 15th, 2009
1:30 pm

Where: House Hearing Rm A
John L. O'Brien Building
Olympia, WA
Directions: http://www.ga.wa.gov/visitor/direction.htm
http://www.ga.wa.gov/images/campus-map.pdf
*NOTE* For the second link look in the lower left-hand to locate the O'Brien Building.

Why: Your educational future depends upon it!