Editor’s note: A previous version of this story indicated all protesters were affiliated with the ADLC. Approximately four demonstrators were ADLC members, while the rest were students not linked to the club.
Almost a dozen students participated in a protest during Cal State Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) new brand launch last Thursday in an effort to garner attention to rising tuition costs and express disappointment about the allocation of school funds.
Around 300 people attended the launch party, which was held as an effort to celebrate the school’s new branding. The event included giveaways of hats and T-shirts emblazoned with the new logo. President Vanya Quiñones explained the intention behind the new university slogan, “The Strength of Us,” saying “each of us has a strength but together we are stronger.”
The protest was located inside the second and third floors of the Otter Student Union and took place from 11 a.m. to noon. Some members of the Abolitionist Decolonial Learning Collective (ADLC) as well as several students not affiliated with the club, demonstrated along the building’s main staircase during the entirety of the launch party.
Demonstrators held up posters reading “we pay your salaries” along with one featuring CSUMB’s new logo edited on a toothpaste box surrounded by “this $h!t sucks,” while also informing attendees about the schools budget and shouting at Quiñones and other administrators who attended the event.
Breyon Harris, a CSUMB psychology major and ADLC demonstrator, expressed their disapproval for the funding of a new logo directly to Quiñones, in the midst of the five-year tuition increase.
“I want to know where my money is going. I am a student from a poor family. And I got accepted here and I was able to pay my tuition and after the 6% increase, it [is going to] make it hard for me to live. I can barely afford housing as it is now and I can barely afford food,” shared Harris.
Mikayla Castillo, another demonstrator, felt the need to protest at the event in order to address and solve more pressing issues affecting the campus and students.
According to the ADLC, residents of Sanderling Hall have seen cases of black mold that has caused students to move into different housing arrangements throughout the semester. Because of these issues, Castillo believes it is ironic “we are spending thousands of dollars of our tuition money toward a rebrand and a new logo.”