CHICO -- A rallying cry to protect the financial strength of the California State University system was heard Tuesday at Chico State University, where 800 people packed the Bell Memorial Union Auditorium.

On each seat in the assembly room were cards encouraging people to sign up for the Alliance for the CSU" — www.allianceforthecsuc.org.

While energy to fight proposed CSU cuts might be strong now, the real effort will be needed in the summer when the state budget is being negotiated, organizers told the crowd.

University President Paul Zingg asked the college community to join together in an effort to contact legislators and protest the budget cuts. "We are a community," Zingg said. "We do many things together."

"We cheer our athletic teams," Zingg said, learn together, occasionally mourn those from the community that are lost, "we share our dreams," he said. "And on occasion we are called upon to fight together," the president said. "What we are fighting for is a vision for the future of California."

California has had a history of supporting higher education, which provides opportunities for the future. That didn't happen by accident, Zingg said.

But that promise of access to a college education is being threatened. "It is a promise challenged for new college seekers," he said.

The task now is to "convince leaders of the state we embrace the future," he said.

Campus rallies to put pressure on legislators to protect the CSU system have been held in all of the 23 campuses in California to try to stop $386 million in funding cuts proposed in the 2008-2009 state budget.

The state faces a $14 billion budget deficit and the governor has announced a 10-percent reduction in all General Fund departments, including education.

According to literature handed out by the California Faculty Association, the governor's budget would increase student fees by 10 percent, to a total of $3,048 a year, which is 113 percent higher than in 2002.

CSU Trustee member Bob Linscheid called the cuts "criminal."

"Do we want to have first-rate prison and second-rate higher institutions?" he asked.

But the cuts aren't inevitable.

Susan Green, chief of the local chapter of the California Faculty Association, said its important that students and others who support higher education join the fight to lessen budget impacts.

"Our message is simple," Green said. "Higher education is part of the solution for a troubled economy."

Especially impacted would be disadvantaged and middle-class students who will find it more challenging to attend college, speakers said. The estimates given were for 10,000 fewer qualified students able to attend the CSU system, plus other effects such as fewer classes, fewer teachers and increased class size.

Students and other community members were also encouraged to attend a statewide student rally April 21 at Raley Field in West Sacramento.