RICHMOND — Leaders from the student governments of Virginia’s universities flooded the offices of the state’s General Assembly members Thursday, seeking to halt higher education budget cuts.
What the members of the House of Delegates and Senate said stopped many of the student body representatives in mid-sentence.
“I’m with you,” said one legislator after another. Virginia Tech SGA President Brandon Carroll said he was often “preaching to the choir.”
Thursday was Lobbying Day for members of Virginia21, a higher-education “action-tank” based in Richmond. Student body presidents and leaders from all public Virginia universities were invited to meet at the Virginia State Capitol to be recognized in session, but more notably, to meet with as many General Assembly members as possible.
Carroll, along with SGA governmental affairs leaders Brittany Anderson and Nadine Gibson, traveled to Richmond to meet with delegates and senators.
Carroll said the efforts of student leaders to meet with General Assembly members in person would be remembered.
“They hear so many times from all these different lobbyists on a daily basis,” Carroll said. “They understand that we’re in school. They understand that we have lives, and that we’re driving down here to show them how important this is to us. I think they realize that.”
Nearly every public Virginia university sent a representative. Christopher Newport University and Longwood University sent the largest number of representatives. Dan Smolkin, the student body vice president for administrative affairs at James Madison University, said he felt all students needed to send a message that they were worried about budget cuts.
“Students are what the universities are about,” Smolkin said. “If this is something that truly is important to us, it’s something that needs to come from the students, and not just the political science majors or the ones that are really studying legislation.”
More than 30 student leaders swarmed through the halls of the General Assembly building Thursday morning, looking to convince policy makers to stop certain cuts to higher education.
Most said they were already convinced, especially on the topic of an auxiliary student fee tax in former Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposed budget.
“I think that was probably a poison pill that was put in the budget that was unacceptable to the majority of people,” said Sen. Frank Ruff, a Republican from the 15th District.
The tax, if written into the final budget, would take five percent of student auxiliary fee money from each public university in the state.
Auxiliary student fees include money paid to the university for health centers, athletic facilities and libraries.
Steven Jones, executive director of Virginia21, said the tax was a top priority for his group. He is confident it will not make it to the final budget, which is scheduled to be finished March 14.
“What students need to see, and what we think the legislators have seen, is that it is more of an issue of public trust,” Jones said. “The school sends you a bill that says you are paying a $30 computer fee — that is what it should actually go toward. It shouldn’t go to paying down the state deficit.”
Ruff said the prospect of legal ramifications could also cause the tax to be removed from the budget.
“I think it puts us on very thin ice. Those fees were paid with one purpose, and I would not at all be surprised if the families or students that paid those fees felt like they had a case in court,” Ruff said.
Multiple legislators told Carroll and other student representatives lobbying against the tax that they hoped it was removed.
Sen. Mark Obenshain, a Republican from the 26th district, said he would be “shocked” if the committees working on each house’s respective budget proposals left the tax in the plan.
Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat who represents part of Montgomery County, as well as Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Robert Orrock, said it was unlikely the measure would remain in the final budget.
Orrock, a high school teacher by trade, said he took action when he feared a similar tax could be imposed in his school district.
As the sponsor of his school’s FFA chapter, he had put significant surplus funds into a rainy-day fund. As the economy worsened, he decided to buy the group a tractor with the money instead of holding it, fearing the local school district may pull from rainy-day funds built by club fundraising.
The efforts of Virginia21 and the student leaders found no opposition in the General Assembly.
“It was interesting; a lot of them were saying, ‘You’re kind of talking to an ally here,’ or they definitely agreed with me,” Carroll said.
Smolkin said it is a matter of how motivated the legislators are to act on their convictions.
“Of course in going into the meetings, your expectation is that no senator or delegate is going to tell you they are opposed to funding,” Smolkin said.
Del. Timothy Hugo, a Republican from the 40th District, said in a meeting with Carroll that he did not know about the tax.
He said he would ask the appropriations committee to remove the tax. Hugo admitted that the inclusion of the tax, a small portion of the budget, would not cause him to vote against a proposal.