Undergraduate Student Government (USG) plans to set up a working relationship with Pennsylvania's future governor by meeting with each gubernatorial candidate, said Kevin "Kip" Talley, USG executive director of governmental relations.
The potential meetings would take place sometime before the fall elections and would be part of USG's larger effort of lobbying Pennsylvania's government in the interest of post-secondary education, said Town Sen. John Krohn, the governmental relations chair.
Krohn and Talley plan to work together throughout the year in lobbying representatives on issues such as increasing appropriations for commonwealth, or state-funded, schools, Talley said.
In addition to meeting gubernatorial candidates, Krohn and Talley will participate in a lobbying trip to Harrisburg on Oct. 29, along with the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University.
The coordinated lobbying trip parallels University of Pittsburgh Student Government President Kevin Washo's plan to create a student lobbying organization composed of the four schools.
The Pennsylvania State Student Association would use the thousands of student votes in each school as leverage to increase state funding for commonwealth schools, the foremost of its goals, Washo said.
Washo urged all students to participate more in politics, primarily by exercising their power to vote.
"We've been sitting back too long," he said.
"It's time to start organizing and start being effective."
Of all commonwealth schools, Penn State receives the lowest amount of state funding per student, Krohn said.
The average student attending a commonwealth school gets $4,580 from the state, while each Penn State student receives $3,250.
The amount of appropriations constituting Penn State's budget has been on a steady decline, Krohn said.
In 1977, 59 percent of Penn State's budget came from state appropriations, while only 34 percent of its budget came from appropriations in 1997, he said. State funding currently accounts for 13.4 percent of the university's budget.
