Relax. This is an old story.
I’ve begun wading through boxes and boxes of papers from Jerry Brown’s first governorship, which are housed in a library at USC. I made a request last summer for access and complained publicly when I didn’t get an answer. Brown, who like all former governors can restrict access to his papers for at least 50 years after he leaves office, granted me access in February, though some issues with the library’s schedule for processing papers had delayed actual access for a couple months.
I’ve been through about 20 boxes out of hundreds. But there have been several small, fun finds, including a telegram sent to Brown at 5:13 p.m. on June 13, 1978, a week after the passage of Prop 13. The writer worries about whether tuition could be imposed at Cal State campuses as a result of Prop 13.
"If tuition is imposed… thousands of students, especially ethnic minorities will be forced out of college. The door to personal improvement-post secondary education-will be closed to thousands of young Californians…. We believe that if belts should be tightened, the biggest belts should be tightened first. Students living on $2.67 an hour salaries at part time work do not have the biggest belts… We request that you take a position in favor of preserving our tuition free university and colleges."
There is no record in the file of the governor’s reply, if there was one.
The author? Steve Glazer, identified in the telegram as president of the Associated Students of San Diego State University. Glazer is now running Brown’s campaign for governor.
According to this New York Times piece, 1978 is the same year that Glazer met Brown at a campus rally and coordinated a student campaign for Brown’s re-election.