Since June 2, a group of De Anza students, including members of Students for Justice, have been living on campus in tents to protest the layoffs of about 70 staff and faculty members in the district because of the budget crisis.

"Our main objective was to have the board address the issue of layoffs first, reverse the layoffs and consider other alternatives," said Beth "Red" Hollingshead, a member of Students for Justice.

On the evening of the 16th about 20 students assembled outside the Foothill district offices in Los Altos Hills, beating drums and chanting slogans such as "They say cut back, we say fight back," and "Lois, you're bogus, here's your lay-off notice."

The protesters were referring to Interim chancellor Lois Callahan and were carrying 8¹/2 by 11 pink slips for each of the board members.

"By this we meant to tell the board members that they didn't deserve their jobs and we are laying them off," Hollingshead said.

The protesters were allowed into the board meeting in the presence of a police officer, and one of the students, Ali Rahnoma, climbed onto the conference table and shouted demands as visibly shocked board members looked on.

"This was an instrument to communicate our frustration and anger with the board of trustees," Rahnoma said in a telephone interview. The police officer told the young man to get off the table, and Mary Mason, president of the board tried to calm things down and give the students a chance to speak. The students complained that their protests at De Anza were being ignored.

Callahan said, that the painful decisions about layoffs were the result of decreased state funding and increasing costs.

"We encourage student input as a key element of the participatory governance process through which decisions are made," Callahan said in a written statement. "We also welcome comments at board meetings that demonstrate mutual respect for the members, policies and procedures of the district."