Collegiate Times

Image: 2011-01-26 21:32:46

Bo Hart, SGA president, is one of several Virginia Tech students who will participate in Thursday’s “Hokie Day,” a lobbying day in Richmond to promote university funding initiatives. Before the trip, Hart took time to speak with the Collegiate Times about the trip, and how Tech could see benefits from the lobbying efforts.

COLLEGIATE TIMES: Can you briefly describe “Hokie Day” and what it is?

BO HART: “Hokie Day” is an annual event that’s done with the alumni association, the university, the student government association, the graduate students, undergraduate students and the general assembly. It happens every year about this time — last week of January, first week of February.

It’s where we go and the general assembly recognizes that it is “Hokie Day.” It is a day for Virginia Tech. We go and lobby for Virginia Tech and make sure that we just don’t keep getting cut with the budget. It’s a good time to tell stories about what it’s like to be a student at Virginia Tech, what it was like to be a student, and make sure the state recognizes that higher education is important.

CT: When you go this year, what is your agenda like? Who are you planning on talking to?

BH: Our agenda is we have a legislative breakfast in the morning. That’s with all of us. We have about 150 total Hokies there. That’s alumni, students, and then most of the administration will be there as well.

And then starting at 9:15, we’ll all go off and we’ll meet with our delegates and senators that we’ve been assigned to and we’ll go talk to them. And then at 11:30 we’ll get a picture with the governor, but since the governor’s father just passed away he has a memorial service tomorrow. So this year we are getting a picture with the lieutenant governor. And then we go inside the session and we’re honored by the senate and delegates that it’s “Hokie Day.” It will be publically announced that it’s “Hokie Day” and we’ll get a round of applause. We then meet back at the SunTrust building at 12:30 to have a debrief lunch and to go over the day with everybody. Then we’ll be back on the road by 2 to come be here.

CT: In an announcement about “Hokie Day,” there was a statement that this year is extremely important. Is it more important than years in the past?

BH: Every year is just as important.

This year the governor has created a commission on higher education and that hasn’t been created in a long time. The governor feels that higher education is important. He has pledged $50 million to higher education, which is fantastic.

In the years past, we’ve never gotten any money. It has always been cut. So it’s an important year and we need to make sure that we continue to get money for the students that we have. Since 2004, Virginia Tech has increased its Virginia students by 2,200 students. The state wants schools to increase in-state tuition even more. But we’ve already added 2,200 students since 2004 and we haven’t had any additional funding for the students since 2007. So we’re going to advocate that if you want us to increase our Virginia state students then we need to get funding for them.

CT: How, specifically, will Virginia Tech benefit?

BH: It will help because they are not cutting the budget. The governor said that we’re not going to get any more higher education cuts for the year, but there are always back door clauses and legislative bills that relate to other things like our auxiliary funds, etc., that could sneakily take away money. So we’re advocating for that to not happen.

A version of this article appeared in the Jan 27 issue of the Collegiate Times.