Students Lobby Legislature

Student Body President Jen Daum and Provost Robert Shelton will head a tuition task force over the summer to develop a five-year plan to present to the UNC-system Board of Governors in the fall.

Student government officials will work to keep tuition low, according to the Executive Connection, a monthly newsletter from the executive branch of student government.

Daum has also worked to develop a student-led effort to lobby the N.C. General Assembly. About 31 students participated in "Lobbying for Higher Education," a political science course aimed at teaching the basics of effectively lobbying the legislature on budget issues. Daum said she hopes this will show the legislature that students are serious about protecting education from budget cuts.

"We want to effectively communicate a few talking points to the legislature," she said.

Daum said her administration is particularly concerned with protecting facilities and administrative funds from budget cuts. F&A funds are used to pay for undergraduate research and graduate student salaries, among other areas.

Getting students involved in the lobbying efforts is a priority for Daum's administration.

"We have a list of about 75 students who are going to help us directly in working with the legislature," she said. "Others who are out of town this summer are committed to helping out in other ways, whether by writing their representative or visiting the General Assembly with us at some other time."

Daum said that with an upcoming election year, officials will pay special attention to the voices of students who vote.

"When the governor talks about protecting the classroom, he means us," she said. "If we don't tell our representatives why a 5 percent cut to education would be devastating, we're not doing our part."

Student Body Secretary Rebecca Williford said getting students to talk to their own legislators is the key to success in lobbying. "We'll take a UNC contingent to Raleigh, but going to talk to your own representative is a lot more effective."

Student Body Vice President Aaron Hiller said getting an established group of students in place during the summer will make lobbying efforts easier to coordinate during the school year.

"We have a lot of students in Raleigh serving internships this summer, so they do a good job of keeping us in touch with what's going on," Hiller said. "It's good that we'll have a grassroots network in place to address this issue as things come up later in the year.

Hiller added that they are preparing for the worst.

"It's still going to be a really rough year, so all we can do is plan ahead and try to anticipate where the majority of the cuts will come," Hiller said. "It's not pleasant, but we'll have to do a lot of damage control."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.