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Southwestern College activist group Support Our Students (S.O.S) is making sure students do not slip quietly into finals week. Members are following up, exactly what they promised to do last month.

“We have been very busy,” said Professor of Political Science Phil Saenz. “It has not been easy. We are not communists. We support capitalism, but we are also support fairness and equity. We do not want to be on the sidelines any longer.”

Since the last forum the group has gone before the Academic Senate, the ASO and the faculty union to ask for their support to create a better life for students. Supporters of S.O.S have already signed a petition asking legislators to freeze enrollment fees. They will be traveling to Sacramento to hand deliver the petitions and send the message that students want a stop to the fee hikes.

“It’s out of control! when will it stop?” asked Saenz. “It went from $26 to $36 and now they are talking about $46. It ends now! If they want to raise fees they should require a 2/3 vote to do so.”

In addition, S.O.S has been poking around and doing some investigating that is now getting some questions answered. Their inquiry about the Textbook Swap Program being close to unknown on campus has brought the bookstore to make the swap program more conspicuous on the website.

S.O.S is asking publishers to contribute five free copies to make available on reserve in the SWC library.

“If the publishers can not agree we have another way,” said Saenz. “We are asking the ASO to fund this. After all, you are ASO cardholders and you pay your fees. They have $500,000 on reserve and that should go to directly go to aid the students, it is only fair.”

S.O.S is making sure that other groups be held financially responsible.

“I was looking for the answer,” said philosophy professor Alejandro Orozco. “And initiative Proposition 1522 is that answer. It would slap a 15 percent extraction tax on oil companies on the oil and natural gas they take out of California land. That may sound like an easy solution but it’s not. We need 504,000 signatures to make this happen and we need foot soldiers to help.”

California is the only state that has oil drilling without an extraction fee tax. Alaska raised its extraction fee to 25 percent from 22 percent and felt no tug from it, according to the data collected by the Rescue Education California Foundation, Texas oil extraction tax has helped fund public education $2 million annually and the state’s gas is 50 cents cheaper than California.

“Oil companies are going to try and use scare tactics to keep people from signing this into action,” said Peter Mathews, the lead proponent of the initiative. “They are going to try and say that if this does go into effect you will pay more at the pump and jobs will be lost. But that is wrong. There is a provision in the second chapter that prevents this. If they do try to pass down any taxes to the pumps they will be fined twice the amount they passed on.”

Mathews is a political science professor at Cypress College in Orange County. His Initiative aims to aid education solely by providing money to make more classes available, bring more teachers in and lower tuition rates.

About 11 percent of the tax will go to UC systems, 14 percent to the CSU system, 38 percent to the community college system and 37 percent will go to fund K-12 systems.

“The money will not be allowed to be used on construction and salary increases,” said Orozco. “This is to put the money back where it belongs, in education.”

S.O.S. called upon students and faculty to become the petition gathers to help the bill make the ballot.

“You have to be that person outside of the stores with the clipboards,” said Saenz. “You can no longer ignore them.”

Among the crowd were twins Kim Cuilty and Farrah Cuilty students from Miramar College came to hear Orozco and Saenz speak. Kim became familiar with S.O.S and Prop 1522 when she attended the Student Senate of Community College conference in San Jose last month where Mathews was the keynote speaker.

“He talked about the initiative,” she said. “And I wanted to get involved and I knew I have the power to get involved, we all do. I’m personally working with my school to organize rallies like this and getting those signatures to get this bill on next year ballot.”

Orozco and Saenz said they are gaining the momentum and they need to get SWC students as well as other colleges motivated. Mathews plans to speak to SWC next semester.