Student Veterans Look to Sacramento for Funding

Veterans from Fresno City College asked state legislators for increased funding so that all 113 community colleges in the state can expand or build a veterans resource center.

As a veteran and student reporter for the Rampage, I was invited to go along on the trip to Sacramento on March 8 to join other veteran students from California community colleges in telling our stories about how we have benefitted from the veterans resource center or how the lack of one has impacted the learning process.

The trip was organized by Nancy L. Montgomery from Irvine Valley College, Todd Steffan from Las Positas College, Daniel Avegalio from American River College, Patty D’Orange Martin from Pasadena College and Terence Nelson from Saddleback College.

Currently, fewer than 60 community colleges in California have a veterans resource center, but most are not fully staffed, and many lack an adequate facility.

Seven veterans represented FCC — Granville Redmond, counselor, William Coleman, the veterans club president and his wife Aurora Coleman; Steve Burton, Adolfo Tellez, the ASG veterans senator, Matthew Crisp, the ASG special programs senator and this reporter.

The group arrived at the Capitol around 9 a.m., registered with organizers and received a packet with information about which community colleges have or don’t have VRCs and tickets for boxed lunch.

The packet also contained information on the legislators the group would be seeing that day and what districts they represent, as well as information about how the VRCs are funded.

The group’s first appointment was with Assemblyman Rudy Salas of the 23rd district, but Assemblyman Salas was unavailable, so we met with his legislative aide, Jose Alvarado.

Alvarado listened to each of our stories and assured us that he would pass on all the information to Assemblyman Salas as soon as possible.

After our first meeting, the group went on to lunch break, and during the break, the organizers had legislators come out and speak about the importance of speaking up to gather support for our cause.

The first speaker, event organizer Nancy Montgomery, introduced the assembly member for the 44th district and Veterans Affairs Committee Chair, Jacqui Irwin, who welcomed the veterans to the capital.

Next up was assemblyman for the 76th district and former Marine Colonel Rocky Chavez, who gave a rallying speech about fighting for veterans rights.

After Chavez was state senator for the 29th district, Josh Newman, and he was followed by Marc Levine, assemblyman for the 10th district who we also spoke to in the halls of the capitol.

The last legislator to speak was Sharon Quirk-Silva, assemblywoman for the 65th district.  Quirk-Silva was the former chair of the Veterans Committee.

Afterwards, everyone gathered at the steps of the east entrance of the capitol to take a picture.  With more than 250 veteran students, this was the largest crowd that gathered for this event.

“It’s a real picture of why they [veterans] need this strong support system and services on campuses,” said Montgomery. “Veterans feel empowered at these events; they can go back and say, ‘let’s get more funding for the services we need’.”

Following some down time, the veterans took a tour of the capital.

The next appointment was with Frank Bigelow, assemblymember for District 5. He was not present because of illness, but the group met with his legislative aide Hannah Ackley who promised to pass the message to Bigelow, a strong supporter of veterans.

After the meeting with Bigelow’s office, the group set out to meet our next appointment. We merge our group with the veterans group from Columbia College.

Both teams met with Tom Berryhill, state senator for the 8th district, an area that includes both Columbia College and FCC.

The group’s goal was to explain to Berryhill how both colleges, despite the difference in their sizes, have similar struggles funding the VRC.

However, Assemblyman Berryhill was unavailable, and we were met by his legislative director, Matthew J. Gallagher, who said he would gladly listen to us and pass on the conversation to his boss.

Once the meeting was done, the group went on to get on the van and got ready to head back to Fresno.

The group felt that even though we didn’t get to meet or talk to any of the legislators we were supposed to meet, our point came across clearly and that the mission to ask for funding was a success.

“The trip was very productive for us, even though it was the first year we attended,” said William Coleman, veterans club president. “I think we hit a homerun as far as getting our point across to the legislators.”