Two students from Sacramento State have joined approximately 14 others statewide for a hunger strike to protest tuition hikes and budget cuts until the California State University Board of Trustees complies with a four-demand proposal.

After a denial from CSU Board of Trustees Chair Bob Linscheid and Chancellor Charles Reed to meet and discuss concerns and solutions, Students for Quality Education started the statewide hunger strike.

Senior social work major Mildred Garcia and senior ethnic studies major Yeimi Lopez began their hunger strike on Thursday for Sac State, joining students from six other California State Universities.

The strikers’ demands include a five-year suspension on student tuition hikes, reversal of executive and administrative salaries to 1999 levels, elimination of all 23 CSU presidents’ housing and car allowances and freedom of speech areas to expand to entire campuses.

“Students are already starving, having to eat ramen on a daily basis because they cannot afford the costs of living while studying at a university,” Garcia said in a press release. “This hunger strike is not extreme; it is a harsh reality that the CSU Board of Trustees needs to wake up to.”

The Students for Quality Education members ate their final meal of pizza and announced their efforts on Wednesday at Occupy Sacramento. Their diet will consist of water, juice and tea during the strike.

“People are surprised we are willing to take it to that extent, but at the same time we’ve gotten a lot of support,” Garcia said. “It’s something to help us inform more students about the CSU budget.”

Students for Quality Education sent a letter to Linscheid and Reed on March 20 informing them of the demands and asking for a meeting to discuss the issues.

“Time and time again, you show where your priorities lie and it is due to your callous and unacceptable leadership that we presented the following demands,” wrote Erika Flores, representing Students for Quality Education.

Linscheid sent a reply back to the Students for Quality Education on April 18 denying the request of a meeting about the demands.

Before a press call on April 27, Students for Quality Education sent a second letter to Linscheid and Reed requesting another meeting regarding CSU cuts.

“Funding for the CSU has been cut since 2003, with cuts totaling in the billions. Students have been deeply impacted by these budget cuts. For those reasons, we have asked to meet and discuss alternatives in managing these cuts,” Flores wrote in the second letter. “After being denied a meeting to discuss solutions to tuition hikes and budget cuts, Students for Quality Education announced students from across six CSU campuses will go on a hunger strike until the demands requested are met.”

Lopez said the participants are striking for all of the demands and will not compromise.

“Our classes have been cut and our programs slashed. We are thus taking the torch and are escalating our direct actions,” Lopez said in a press release. “We are taking a stand as students of California, for our sisters and brothers at the community colleges and K-12.”

Occupy Sacramento and Chico State alumna Kim Sloan said all four demands are reasonable and realistic and student strikers won’t be satisfied unless all are met.

“The main purpose of the hunger strike is to gain the CSU Board of Trustees attention by saying ‘Hey, we are willing to potentially sacrifice our lives for education, what are you doing about it?’” Sloan said.

Sloan, who will support and provide any help Lopez and Garcia need, said people have responded positively to the news of the hunger strike, but many are concerned with the womens’ safety.

“People are concerned as far as the health of the students, but all of the participants were given a physical before they decided to do the strike,” Sloan said. “They’re talking with nutritionists and students about the hunger strike and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback because we’re doing it in a safe way.”

The strikers will receive multiple physicals during the all liquid diet.

“We’re getting physical checks at the Health Center to sign off on us doing the hunger strike,” Garcia said. “We’re pushing ourselves, but still playing it smart.”

Sloan said she got involved with the strike after talking to Lopez and attending a meeting about the cause.

“People want to see these kinds of realistic changes happen within the CSU education system because they realize how expensive it has become to go to school,” Sloan said. “It’s not fair that there is a board of executives getting paid in the six-figures while students are struggling to even make a couple thousand bucks a year while going to school.”

Besides not eating, the hunger strikers will face the difficulty of managing last minute school work and finals week without food in their systems.

“With classes right now ending its very stressful because there is a lot going on, but that’s how dedicated I am to the cause,” Garcia said.

Alyssa Sanguinetti can be reached at [email protected].