Sac State students are working hard to inform students, faculty and members of the community about what senior Robert Cabiness referred to as “preposterous 54” before election time.

Proposition 54, also known as the “Racial Privacy Initiative,” was scheduledfor the Oct. 7 recall ballot but may be postponed with the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision on a delay of the election.

The passage of Prop. 54 would prohibit all California State Universities from obtaining racial and ethnic information about enrolled students. As stated in Associated Students, Inc.’s Coalition Against Proposition 54, “This is detrimental to Sac State and the entire CSU system. Prop 54 would prevent Sacramento State from finding out the diversity of their campus or conduct any social research that involves race.”

More than a dozen campus and community organizations joined together in speaking out against Prop. 54 at a rally held in the University Union Ballroom on Sept. 9.

The “Everybody Needs To Know! On Prop. 54” unification rally was hosted by self-proclaimed political revolutionary and member of Africans For Reeducation, Innovation, Consciousness and Achievement, Ajamu Umi.

“People don’t want to talk about slavery,” he said. “They don’t want to talk about how land was stolen from indigenous people…. Prop. 54 is about eliminating talk about racism.”

An intern for the California Faculty Association, Cabiness is one of several students, including ASI’s Luke Wood and Marlon Cuellar, visiting classrooms on campus to educate students about the proposition and encourage voter registration.

“I think students have been very receptive to the classroom speeches,” Cabiness said. “Hopefully this will help get the word out.”

Getting the word out may prove to be very difficult, because only 34 percent of college students vote, said Sac State bilingual education professor Duane Campbell, who spoke at the rally. Campbell, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, called for rally-goers to help him in his mission to “teach the skills necessary to make democracy work.”

Campbell informed attendees that only five percent of students are even aware that Prop. 54 exists.

Sociology major Shenaaz Janmohaned is part of that five percent. She, along with other members of Campus Peace Action, is fighting Prop. 54.

“As a member of the Muslim community, I have seen racial profiling get out of hand since 9/11,” Janmohaned said. “Prop. 54 won’t allow any records of racial profiling to be kept. It would be like closing our eyes to it.”

As students in the Union wandered past, many were drawn in by chants of “One, two, three, four, we ain’t goin’ back to ’54!” and “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! 54 has got to go!”

One such chant was led by a member of the Sacramento Valley Organizing Committee, Tyrone Netters, who claimed that the passage of Prop. 54 would “lead to the re-segregation of America… If we don’t stop Prop. 54, we’re going to wake up in 1954.”

State president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and CSU Trustee Alice Huffman were presented with a banner signed by individuals and organizations in support of the anti-Prop. 54 movement. The banner, which was adorned with phrases like “Fight the power!” and “Don’t stand in silence,” will be presented by Huffman at the next Board of Trustees meeting to show her support for the anti-Prop. 54 movement.

Other speakers for the evening included former ASI President Eric Guerra, current ASI officer Marlon Cuellar, Sac State professors Cecil Canton and Eric Vega and By Any Means Necessary representative Jody Mosley.

Before the closing of the rally, an announcement was made by Black Student Culture Association member Greg Dossie that plans were in the works to have Reverend Jesse Jackson make an appearance at Sac State to speak out against Prop. 54. Dossie is part of three coalitions on campus working to stop the proposition.

Original plans for Jackson to appear on Sept. 16 conflicted with his other scheduled visits to UC Berkeley and San Jose State on that same day.

Rescheduling is in process now to get Jackson to Sac State during the first week of October on the second round of his “No On Prop. 54” college campus tour.