Faculty urge students to stand up, speak out

BY LINDSAY TROTT | Staff Reporter

With budget cuts and tuition increases looming, now more than ever Central faculty and staff are encouraging to get involved and fight to make a positive change.

Within the next thirty days, big bottom-line decisions will be made regarding the budget, and students have the power to make a change. The problem that many students face when considering what they can do to speak out against budget cuts, many feel their voices may not be heard.

“It’s almost an excuse,” said John Drinkwater, senior director for Campus Life. “Let’s stop denying that we are in tough times and work to change it.”

Drinkwater believes that students need to get organized to change the tuition increases and budget cuts before they become too out of control, which may cause students to not be able to attend school.

“There’s only so much financial aid to go around,” he said.

Drinkwater advises concerned students to have their parents write letters to legislators urging them to stop increasing tuition and increase funding for higher education because legislators are going to listen to voters.

Students themselves however should rally together, because the higher the number of students the more impact they will have on getting the message across to legislators who are making the important decisions about their future.

There are a series of upcoming events on campus that are aimed at getting students involved in knowing what is going on with legislative matters. On Friday Feb. 5, there will be a Walk Out for students to rally against budget cuts.

“Hopefully, we will be marching to the Board of Trustees meeting to make sure the trustees know the students hearts,” said Jack Barry, ASCWU-BOD Vice President for Political Affairs.

There will also be a statewide protest and rally in Olympia that will be held February 15. Students interested in attending the rally will be able to take a coach bus over to Olympia.

Lisa Schactler, Public Affairs Liaison for Central, also strongly believes that students have a say.

“Students have a very powerful voice in Olympia,” she said.

Schactler believes that students have such a powerful voice because legislators want to put a face to the budget cuts and see how it is affecting those pursuing higher education.

“Funding for higher education hasn’t been a priority for the past 10 years,” she said.

Schactler explained the while funding for community colleges is up 28 percent public universities get a 7 percent funding cut.
“There is the perception that community college is the place to go for work force training,” Schactler said.

Along with budget cuts, work study is proposed to be cut along with several scholarships, such as the Future Teachers of America Scholarship, and the Washington Award for Vocational Excellence among others.

“Finding students to come in and speak puts a face to the numbers and helps provide an important case to why higher education is important and changes lives,” Schactler said.

John McKean, legislative liaison for Central, said that last year’s lack of student presence inspired him to get more involved, and he believes the message of how important it is to stand up to issues that directly affect them is now resonating with students.

“We’re hoping to have as many people on February 15 as possible,” said John McKean,

Along with the walk out on February 5 and the rally on February 15, there are many other things that students can do to fight to change the budget cuts and tuition increases.

Students can visit www.wastudents.org which fights for issues that directly affect students such as keeping tuition affordable, financial aid support from the state and federal Government, putting a stop to high textbook prices, and promoting campus safety. The Web site has information on upcoming events and petitions to sign.

Finding your own legislator (from your hometown) and writing a letter- not e-mail with a contact address, Calling 1-800-562-6000 and asking to leave a message to the Governor’s office, visiting www.wastudents.org to sign petitions, and actually going to speak to legislators