The CSU Employees Union student workers delivered a petition, consisting of 4,000 signatures, to President Neufeldt’s office on Tuesday to express their frustrations with California State University leadership. The CSUEU represents over 35,000 student workers and career staff across the CSU system. The union’s demands center around protecting jobs, improving wages, and ensuring sufficient resources to support students and staff as enrollment grows.
The demonstration was held at the Administration Building and was led by Justin Gans, the student organizer of the movement at CSUSM. The attendees of the event included five student employees and David Garcias, a CSUEU labor relations representative.
As the demonstrators marched towards President Neufeldt’s office, the group chanted “Union Power” and “What do we want? A Fair Contract.” Participants were also seen holding signs that displayed messages such as, “CSU stop negotiating in bad faith” and “Pres. Neufeldt, student workers demand a fair contract.”
Although President Neufeldt was in a meeting with the CSU Board of Trustees, the petition was received by Operations Coordinator, Zeida Meehan.
The event highlighted the union’s opposition to staff layoffs, reductions in student services, and minimum wage jobs for student workers — issues they believe are unjust amid record-high first-year enrollments across the CSU system.
The demonstration is a part of CSUEU’s broader efforts to challenge proposed budget cuts, which they argue are unnecessary given the CSU system’s $8.7 billion investment portfolio and its recent enrollment growth. The union emphasized that enrollment increased by 2% from 2023 to 2024, with over half of the 68,500+ first-year students coming from historically underserved groups, including Latinx, Black, and Native American communities.
“Enrollment is up; the CSU’s vision for the future should be too,” the CSUEU stated in a recent message.
The demonstration at CSU San Marcos is part of a larger effort by the union to build pressure ahead of the next CSU Board of Trustees meeting. Thousands of student workers and career staff have already signed the petition, with more encouraged to join the fight for equitable working conditions and job security within the CSU system.