Lobby Day aims to raise student voices

Participants at UCLA’s first Lobby Day, which is taking place today, will learn lobbying techniques during the morning and then apply these skills during visits to nearby legislative district offices in the afternoon.

The event, titled Make Noise! Be the Student Voice! Lobby Day, will teach participants lobbying skills that can be used to attempt to influence upcoming legislation affecting higher education ““ including the May Revise of the state budget, during which state legislators will have the opportunity to buy out the UC fee increase. There is also legislation in Congress regarding national financial aid and student loan programs.

The morning will be divided up into workshops about state issues, federal issues, and a lobby clinic that will teach about specific legislation in Congress.

In the afternoon, Lobby Day participants will travel to the local offices of legislators such as Reps. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles.

Jeanalee Obergfell, director of state affairs for the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president’s office, said Lobby Day is designed to make students comfortable about expressing their concerns to the government.

“Lobbying is not supposed to be intimidating,” Obergfell said. “It’s something that’s supposed to be used to voice our power and talk about the issues that affect us.”

Lobby Day is a student-initiated and student-run event that will be led by members of the USAC office of the external vice president, some of whom are also members of the U.S. Student Association, a national association representing U.S. higher education to the Department of Education, the White House, and Congress.

USAC External Vice President Tina Park said students will learn how to lobby about issues that are particularly relevant to university students, such as funding for outreach programs for low-income students and federal loan programs.

Lauren Macheski, national affairs director of the USAC office of the external vice president and former executive producer of BruinNews 29, who is also on the board of directors for the U.S. Student Association, said lobbying elected officials about financial aid is extremely important because the Higher Education Act of 1965, which includes provisions for federal student loan programs, is up for reauthorization in Congress.

Macheski added that, in addition to learning how to influence issues on a national level, she said she hopes students participating in Lobby Day will learn ways to help campus organizations better voice their concerns to student government.

Park said one important skill Lobby Day participants will be learning is how to take control of a meeting with a legislative representative so the government official does not take control of the conversation.

Park said she believes one of the most effective ways to lobby is for students to tell legislators about their personal situations as they relate to legislation.

Obergfell agreed that personalizing the issues is an effective way to lobby legislators.

“Usually students that are affected by the issues are the most effective lobbyists,” Obergfell said.

Park said she set up this program because she wanted to make the lobby training she received as a first-year student in Sacramento more widely available.

“I gained so much from that experience (in Sacramento),” she said.

“Being able to share my story and how it connected to these policies was really an empowering experience for me.”

Obergfell said part of the reason this workshop is occurring spring quarter is because with the May Revise of the state budget coming up, the external vice president’s office wants to provide students with tools to lobby state legislators to buy out, or lower, the fee increase the UC Board of Regents recently approved.

Mae Cauguiran, a second-year English student who will be attending Lobby Day, said that although she would not be greatly affected by increasing fees, she is concerned because some of her friends would be more directly impacted.

“I feel like going to the Lobby Day (will help me) figure out how to make UCLA … more affordable and accessible, not only to me but (also) to others,” she said.

Park said she encourages all interested students to attend Lobby Day because no matter what background a student has in politics, the experience will be valuable.

“It doesn’t matter what major you are, or what your interests are. I’ve seen this kind of experience change a lot of people,” she said.

Park added that she will work with her successor on council to ensure that Lobby Day continues.

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