Media Advisory

March 13, 2003

To:	City Desks, Assignment Desks, Education Reporters
Subject:	Mission College students discuss budget cuts with Assembly Member Cindy Montañez
Date/Time:	Friday, March 14 – 9:30 a.m.
Place:	Office of Assembly Member Cindy Montañez, 11541 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Mission Hills. Thomas Bros. Map 481 J-1

Students from Los Angeles Mission College, as well as faculty members, will meet with Assembly Member Cindy Montañez, D-39th, to express their concerns over proposed state budget cuts and how they will affect community college students.

The group will present hundreds of postcards collected on the Mission College campus and surrounding communities, urging state lawmakers not to impose the cuts proposed by Governor Gray Davis. Students will read some of the postcards and will have an opportunity to ask Ms. Montañez questions about the state budget process, according to political science professor Charles Dirks, who will accompany the students.

Several of the students taking part in the meeting with Assembly Member Montañez will be traveling to Sacramento this Sunday for Monday’s "Keep the Doors Open" rally. Several thousand students from throughout the state are expected in Sacramento to lobby lawmakers on behalf of community colleges.

# # #