 "Photo:")
Last week in Stevenson quad students were exposed to "Mr. Furlough," a puppet that hung in the middle of the quad. A group of SSU students from the studio art 3-D design class created him in hopes it would encourage students to start speaking out against the effects of the budget cuts. The group wanted to mainly express their opinion that due the budget cuts, California State University (CSU) students are paying more for less of an education.
"We created him to be a political statement to encourage students to voice their opinions about budget cuts, and more specifically, furlough days," said Nikki Quinn, sophomore and member of the group that created Mr. Furlough.
The group, comprised of seven students, wanted to make sure every part of the project represented something. They designed him in extensive detail so the representation would be loud, bold and political.
"We wanted to have him be a puppet, hence why he was hanging from the wooden handles. We also used a real suit to make him represent reality, but at the same time, be empty. In one hand he held a textbook with all of its pages falling out, an almost empty book. In the other hand, we turned textbook pages into money, and had that hand lower than the empty textbook to represent the idea that we are 'paying more for less of an education,'" said Quinn.
"Mr. Furlough" hung in the quad from Sunday evening through Thursday in order to affect the most people on campus. The art group passed out over 400 nametags that read, "Hello, my name is Mr. Furlough" to faculty and students on Monday to raise awareness and to get the SSU population more involved.
Some students who weren't able to retrieve a sticker on Monday were left a little confused as to what "Mr. Furlough" represented.
The group had an explanation that was part of the projection to explain what "Mr. Furlough" stood for, however that piece was taken down.
"We had a poster up that read 'The CSU puppet show presents: President Armiñana as' and then the banner below said 'Mr. Furlough,'" said Quinn. "But that was taken down around 7 or 7:30 in the morning so I don't believe any of the students saw it."
The group does not know who took down the poster, but they suspect it could have been Armiñana or his staff members.
"The poster had Mr. Armiñana's name on it and was taken down around the same time he arrived on campus," said Quinn. "It may be a coincidence, but we believe it was a deliberate attempt to remove his name from the piece itself."
If the poster had stayed up it would have clearly stated what and who "Mr. Furlough" was intended to represent.
Students were able to join a group created on the social networking website Facebook. The group was titled "Mr. Furlough," and allowed members to express their thoughts about the effects of the budget crisis on the CSU system.
One student commented by saying "Luckily the UC system has escaped Furlough days. We are, however, going to see a 32 percent increase in fees by next year. Oh California, how you seem to hate educating our youth."
According to the group, the response from the SSU community was overwhelming.
"Students were really interested in the piece. Not only did they go up and closely examine the physical piece in the quad, but many were motivated to wear the name tags and joined discussions on the Facebook group," said Quinn. "We even had some staff ask if they could wear nametags, after asking if they would get fired for wearing one. Many students would stop and talk to us as well, getting into some good conversations about furlough days."
Faculty members wanted to be part of this project as well. They were excited to speak out and express their views, even if it could put their jobs in jeopardy.
"Many of the faculty members were very excited about the piece, and really wanted to wear the nametags," said Quinn. "They told us that they were truly frustrated with furlough days, and do not support taking away students' education. We had m any professors walking around wearing our nametags."
"Mr. Furlough" is just one of the many ways in which students and faculty members have chosen to voice their opinions about the budget crisis and its effects on the CSU.
On the "Mr. Furlough" Facebook page it states, "The more voices and opinions we can get, the louder our voice will ring on the issue. We truly hope this helps to spark a fire in people about paying more and getting less."
Be the first to comment on this article!