Students to teach peers to lobby for education funds

John Vu, the external vice president of the Undergraduate
Students Association Council, has begun working in conjunction with
the United States Students Association ““ a national student
advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. ““ to lobby against
President Bush’s proposals by supporting the reauthorization
of the Higher Education Act.

Bush has proposed to eliminate funding to 48 programs in the
Department of Education and cut education funding by $530 million.
Meanwhile, student fees have increased 62 percent for UCLA students
since 2002.

Established in 1965, the act authorized programs and activities
related to higher education, most of which fall into four main
categories: student financial aid, support services to help
students complete high school, aid to strengthen institutions and
aid to improve K-12 teacher training.

The act is reviewed yearly for financial adjustments but is
otherwise reauthorized entirely every five to eight years. It was
last completely revisited in 1998 and is again on the agenda this
year for reauthorization.

Because of the high stakes the act holds in financial and
program sponsorship, Vu, also a member on the USSA Board of
Directors, began early in the summer during USSA conferences to
determine the areas the group finds most important.

In order to garner more needed support for his advocacy work, Vu
has helped organize programs to inform students on issues regarding
education, such as the Students of Color Conference, the Get Out
The Vote Campaign and, most recently, a hot dog sale on Friday.

The hot dog sale, organized by Jeannie Biniek, national affairs
director in the external vice president office, was meant to
highlight the true costs of attendance at the University of
California and show the importance of federal programs in keeping
higher education affordable.

Students wishing to buy a hot dog had to pay extra for the bun,
condiments, plate and napkins ““ a symbolic way to demonstrate
the extra fees for housing, books and living expenses students have
to pay ““ to emphasize that the cost of tuition is only
complementary to other expenses.

The budget cuts and rising costs of education are especially
important to the UCLA campus as it has the greatest percentage of
low-income students of all the UC campuses, said Ronald Johnson,
the UCLA director of financial aid.

It is because of these concerns that Vu, Biniek and the USSA
argue that these fee hikes will decrease access to higher
education.

According to Financial Aid Office records, 45 percent of
undergraduates are receiving some form of funding aid, which makes
this initiative particularly important to the UCLA community.

As a part of the external vice president’s responsibility,
Vu plans not only to educate students on these issues, but also to
teach them how to effectively voice their opinions by holding an
advocacy training session with the UCLA Community and Governmental
Relations Office.

The lobby-training workshop is planned for this Thursday and is
open to anyone who wishes to learn more about the efforts that have
been made and how they can have an effect on their elected
officials.

Another point the USSA addresses is the importance of federal
funding and student financial aid grants to underrepresented
groups.

The 2001 census on the condition of education shows that
although participation in postsecondary education over the past
three decades has risen, individuals from low-income families
““ the bottom 20 percent of all family incomes ““ and
several minority groups remain significantly less likely to
participate in postsecondary education than other individuals.

To compensate for this need, regardless of socioeconomic
backgrounds, Bush has also proposed to increase Pell Grants by $100
every year for five years. A Pell Grant is a federal fund awarded
to students who qualify based on financial need.

But USSA representatives say it is simply not enough.

“While increasing the maximum Pell Grant award is an
important part of college affordability, the current proposal is
misleading,” said Ajita Talwalker, USSA president. “A
modest increase to the Pell Grant while simultaneously attacking
the other parts of a student’s aid package that are necessary
for a student to go to school is not educational access.”

According to the UCLA Financial Aid Office, UCLA had the largest
Pell Grant share in the nation in the 2001-2002 academic year.

Vu, along with other student lobbyists, will encourage students
to sign postcards to send to elected officials to communicate
student concerns about the future of higher education.

When Vu and others from USSA go to the nation’s capitol to
lobby from March 18 through March 22, they plan to present the
collected postcards to the officials to show how large the pool of
students affected by their decisions really is.

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