Academics and activists gathered Friday in Seaside to send a message to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Don't cut the education budget, but if you do, don't tell us how to spend it.

The governor's proposed budget would cut $52 million from California State University outreach programs. In jeopardy is $37 million used for the Educational Opportunity Program, which has helped hundreds of thousands of low-income students since 1968.

At the same time, CSU-Monterey Bay administrators accepted state Assemblyman Simon Salinas' gift of $20,000 to the university. Salinas, the son of migrant farmworkers, donated the money from his campaign fund to set up an endowed scholarship to help low-income migrant students. The first award will be presented in the fall.

A crowd of about 50 current and former CSUMB students gave the assemblyman a standing ovation as he presented the check. Some waved signs pleading for the support of the EOP program.

"These signs and support say to me that we're going to continue to fight for this program," CSUMB President Peter Smith said. "Every other California State University president agrees with the position of these students."

The governor's proposed budget is no way to do business, Smith said.

"We say to them, 'Don't tell us how to do it. Tell us what you want, and we'll figure out how to do it,'" he said. "Micromanaging from the top is not the way progressive companies are run."

More than 45,000 students throughout the California State University system have participated in the outreach program this year.

"We're going to fight for this program," said Salinas, D-Salinas. For three years, he has represented the 28th Assembly District, which includes parts of Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and all of San Benito County.

Salinas recalled picking strawberries in the '60s and '70s in Watsonville before graduating from Watsonville High School in 1978. He attended Claremont McKenna College in Southern California with financial support from a family in Hollister.

"It's our responsibility to give back to the community," Salinas said. "Do not give up on your dreams," he told the assembled students.

CSUMB student Cynthia Isabel Torres of Soledad applauded the announcement. Torres said her father, a migrant farmworker who travels between California and Arizona, at first did not want her to go to college.

"He wanted me to be working," Torres said. "But now he's glad."

Torres, a business major, takes part in the university's outreach program. She is the first in her family to go to college and hopes to be a role model for her three younger sisters.

"I brought my sister over here to stay with me for a week. She liked it." Torres said. "I really want her to go to college."