Mechelle Hankerson
News Editor
As the General Assembly moves closer to passing a new state budget, VCU students and other college students across the state are letting lawmakers know what issues need to be addressed in the realm of higher education.
As part of the effort, VCU SGA will visit the state capitol Thursday to tell lawmakers what issues are important to VCU students during their Rams Day on the Hill event.
Student groups from Old Dominion University, Virginia Tech and William and Mary are also expected to attend.
VCU’s group of students will focus on telling legislators not to raise tuitions, asking for no discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, increasing campus safety as well as increasing bike lanes and roads in Richmond.
According to SGA legislative issues and civic action chair Virag Patel, VCU will also be focusing on legislation that would grant money to VCU to help fund Cabell Library renovations.
“Our current library, it was made to only hold 15,000 students, (and) now we have over 30,000 students on campus,” Patel said. “(The) library hasn’t kept up the progress that VCU itself has made.”
Student groups aren’t the only ones asking the General Assembly to pay attention to state colleges and universities; state student-advocacy groups are also asking state lawmakers to invest in higher education.
Virginia21, a state student-advocacy group, will be holding their annual lobby day next Thursday, a week after VCU students’ unofficial lobbying day.
Tom Kramer, director at Virginia21, said the group has been focusing on their “What’s Your Number?” campaign, which is meant to raise awareness about student debt.
“The idea is … to have students talk to lawmakers about supporting our colleges in the upcoming state budget,” he said.
In Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed budget, higher education was given $100 million to help keep tuition costs down, an issue that came to a head last spring at VCU when McDonnell proposed to withhold $17 million from the university after a 24 percent tuition increase.
“Colleges will be a huge winner in this budget, and students will be a huge winner in this budget, as long as the General Assembly passes it,” Kramer said.
Virginia21 plans to present a petition with 10,000 student signatures that shows support for the proposed budget Kramer said.
“The governor is making higher education a lot more important in the budget than he has in past years,” Kramer said. “It’s come at the expense at many other state services, but … if we want to have an educated workforce, we have to make these investments.”
According to Kramer, Virginia21 is also working on issues of campus safety, specifically on bills in the General Assembly that would allow guns on campus.
Currently, the group is focusing on House Bill 91, introduced by Republican delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas Kramer said.
The bill would allow full-time faculty members at public colleges and universities to carry a licensed, concealed weapon.
Kramer said Virginia21 opposes the bill and supports the current process, in which many schools’ Boards of Visitors decide on campus gun policies.
“Nobody in Richmond should be telling local … colleges how to determine what’s safe and unsafe on (campuses),” he said.