As Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell prepares to release his annual budget proposal in one week, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) Governmental Affairs committee has begun planning a statewide student association to lobby for cost-related student issues.
The program, tentatively called the Pennsylvania Student Association (PSA), aims to link state-funded schools to have a larger influence in Harrisburg, said Samantha Miller, UPUA Governmental Affairs chairwoman. Miller plans to send out e-mails to all public universities and colleges in Pennsylvania to gauge interest in starting the program, she said.
"I thought this might be a good way to organize all of the schools that receive public funding in Pennsylvania to have one united voice," Miller (junior-political science) said.
Though PSA is in its early
stages, Miller said she hopes it will enable students to make a bigger difference because multiple colleges would be making one plea to state lawmakers.
On Monday, Miller and the Governmental Affairs committee compared research about different state associations and drafted an e-mail to be sent to the other Pennsylvania colleges and universities that receive funding from the state.
But with Rendell's expected budget cuts, UPUA has toned down the rhetoric for increasing state appropriations.
"We don't want to appear that we have no idea what's going on," Miller said. "But we want to make sure education is only taking the same hit as everything else. Hopefully, that's a very minimal hit."
Miller said every budget in Pennsylvania would likely get cut, but the student voice is still important and needs to be represented in Harrisburg.
Some possible PSA undertakings could include phone drives and designating days when students could lobby in Harrisburg, Miller said.
University of Pittsburgh Student Government President Kevin Morrison said he campaigned on creating a similar program last semester.
He said he was told there were regulations that prohibited state-funded schools in Pennsylvania from paying dues to a student association. Though he could not identify these regulations, he said he would look further into them.
"I haven't heard of this, but that's part of the reason I want to have a meeting with the other schools," Miller said, adding even if the regulations exist, it probably wouldn't affect the proposed program.
Penn State's Student Activity Handbook includes "appropriations to a legislative lobby or to a registered student organization whose primary purpose is to influence legislation" in a list of items that cannot be funded from the Student Activity Fee.
Because the PSA would not hire lobbyists, it would act as a public interest group, and therefore not break any regulations, Miller said.
Morrison said he would welcome the idea of meeting with other Pennsylvania schools.
"I'd love to, especially with what's been going on," Morrison said. "We need more communication between the schools."
Miller said the idea for PSA originated after attending last summer's Association of Big Ten Students conference, where she learned other states, such as Texas, had similar programs.
The University of Texas Student Government President Keshav Rajagopalan said the Texas Student Association (TSA) began last summer.
Rajagopalan said TSA -- which includes schools such as Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University -- deals with issues such as higher education affordability, textbook costs and funding.
"The important thing right now is bringing people together," Rajagopalan said, adding he doesn't think the University of Texas will receive budget cuts from its state government.
