Under a gray sky and heavy rain, Cal State San Bernardino students, staff and faculty joined a national call Thursday to fight for a higher education system they say is under attack.
CSUSB is one of 45 universities under investigation by the Trump administration for potentially violating part of the Civil Rights Act in admissions for its doctoral program. Thursday afternoon, nearly 40 CSUSB community members adorned in red and carrying signs reading “Hands off our students” gathered to protest and march around the campus.
“The Trump administration has targeted freedom of speech, academic freedom, and has launched an attack on higher education,” said Tiffany Jones, president of the California Faculty Association chapter at CSUSB.
The march in San Bernardino was part of the National Day of Action for Higher Education, a nationwide protest at college and university campuses across the country.
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Students and faculty at Cal State San Bernardino hold signs as they listen to a speaker during an on campus protest over possible university federal funding cuts in San Bernardino Thursday, April 17, 2025. Faculty, staff, and students gathered across the county Thursday in a national call to action to “fight for higher education,” amid President Donald Trump’s threats to cut funding from campuses. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Students and faculty at Cal State San Bernardino hold signs as they listen to a speaker during an on campus protest over possible university federal funding cuts in San Bernardino Thursday, April 17, 2025. Faculty, staff, and students gathered across the county Thursday in a national call to action to “fight for higher education,” amid President Donald Trump’s threats to cut funding from campuses. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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According to the organization, the rallies were meant to “exercise a powerful collective voice in advancing the democratic mission of our colleges and universities. It is our labor and our ideas which sustain higher education as a project that preserves and extends social equality and the common good—as a project of social emancipation.”
In San Bernardino, protesters chanted as they marched. A dog walked along with a sign draped on his back that said “Paws off students” as others carried tote bags with rally slogans. Jones juggled colorful, plastic bowling pins while she marched.
Guy Hepp, a faculty member and member of CFA, said the rally was meant to send a message not only to the Trump administration, but the university administration as well for its rules on public demonstrations on campus.
“A big part of our argument was our campus and university administration,” Heff said. “Rather than standing up against fascist moves by the Trump administration, they’re actually practicing that at a local level.”
CSUSB student Megan Haynes said she was there to oppose “neoliberal incursions into higher education.”
“There are tremendous cuts to higher education, unethical working conditions for professors and general-level inaccessibility that has been devaluing higher education for a long time,” Haynes said.
Haynes said some universities have also made it difficult to protest, thus a rally had been organized.
Elsewhere in Southern California, members of the California Faculty Association, along with students, staff and alumni were to hold a news conference at Cal State Los Angeles, that would address some of the budget issues facing the university. Other California State University campuses, including Long Beach and Fullerton, also saw participants rallying Thursday.
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