The Academic Senate of the CSU system has proposed to send a recommendation to the CSU Board of Trustees to eliminate the State University Grants (SUGs) for graduate students. This unwise proposal has been developed to relieve financial burden on the CSU system. Why have graduate students been targeted? We were not the cause, we are not the answer.

We have chosen the post-graduate path to better ourselves and our communities. Often, this is only possible because of the financial aid that we are awarded. As it stands, we cannot receive aid such as the CalGrant, the Pell Grant, or Subsidized Federal Loans that many other students have access to. In most cases graduate school is only possible with the help of SUGs.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that graduate students have been unfairly targeted as a result of a shrinking budget. As recently as April of this year the SUGs were threatened with elimination for the same reasons. Through the efforts of students and other concerned parties, the SUGs were saved. We were able to save them once, let's do it again.

Please take a moment to take action. We will all suffer if we let the statewide academic senate resurrect an old proposal that is not even being considered by the CSU Board of Trustees.