"Since the budget crisis began, about 70 staff and faculty members have received layoff notices. We believe the district should ask people in higher-level management positions to take pay cuts, not fire classified employees and faculty members who work closest to the students. These workers are the lowest paid and the most vulnerable," said Ali Rahnoma, a senior at De Anza and a member of Students for Justice, the group that organized the protest.

According to Pedro Paulo Viegas De Sa, another De Anza student, so far the district has given layoff notices to 70 classified employees, or 10 percent of the classified staff, seven administration employees from the mid-management level, and none to people in top management positions.

"We are critical of the district board of trustees," said Rahnoma, who joined Students for Justice in 2001 and is one of about 15 active group leaders. "We feel that they have not listened to us and basically dodged our proposal."

"I understand their frustration, and this is a very difficult problem," said Sandy Hay, a member of the district's board of trustees. "None of the decisions we've made are final. We sent out layoff notices as a precautionary move because by law we had to send them out by a certain date. The actual number of layoffs will depend on the final financial support we get from the state. We're trying to do what we can to reduce that number."

Students for Justice—which has the support of many other student and professional organizations, such as Disabled Students Unlimited, the Multi-Cultural Staff Association and Asian Pacific American Students for Leadership—believes the layoffs will hurt the district's commitment to a diverse workforce.

"Many of the workers who are facing layoffs are people of color, and most of them are from poor, working-class families," Rahnoma explained. "These workers and faculty members have daily contact with students, and they understand our needs. Laying them off will affect our education. Our philosophy is cut the fat, not the muscle."

Les Leonardo, president of the Multi-Cultural Staff Association, is scheduled to be laid off this month.

"The board's action, so far, has not reflected the district's master plan, which stated that 'diversity is not just an add-on issue—it's an integral element that contributes to planning, evaluation, assessment and resource allocation decisions.' They are violating their own plan," said Leonardo, who is one of more than 1,000 students and staff members to sign a petition recently asking the district to respect diversity.

Rahnoma and his peers plan to do whatever it takes to get their voice heard.

He said, "We'll push for as long as it takes to raise consciousness and effect positive changes. If the sleep-out doesn't work, we're willing to take it to the next level."

Students for Justice, which has chapters in several colleges in the South Bay, started as a student-based organization at De Anza College in 1994 as a vehicle to empower students and effect changes.