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Legislators listen to student reps

Student Government officers and students visited the state capitol during spring break to lobby against budget cuts. | Courtesy Student Government Association

UH’s Student Government Association’s sponsored trip to Austin over spring break to combat the budget cuts comes back with “positive response.”

The SGA officer-organized trip allowed 21 UH students, representing different groups and colleges on campus, to talk to legislators in the state’s capital regarding the future of their education and the school’s budget on behalf of their fellow classmates.

“Having students sacrifice part of their spring break to run all over the capitol and voice their concerns to state reps shows how much our students believe in the university,” said Kate Gaviola, SGA director of external affairs. “UH SGA wanted to make sure that the University of Houston stood out and that’s exactly what we did. I definitely feel that our trip made a huge impact and left a lasting impression on the legislators.”

Despite the optimism of SGA’s efforts to stop budget cuts at UH and the positive feedback from the legislators, it seems the cuts are still on track. Because of this, SGA President Prince Wilson and the other student leaders looked for other solutions with the legislators through discussions of additional funding UH could receive.

“When we got to the state capital, we received a mostly positive response from legislators who were willing to listen to other ways to manage the state’s budget,” said SGA president Prince Wilson.

“Not only did we talk about the budget cuts and the effect it would have on the UH community, but we also talked about numerous grants from sources such as the National Science Foundation that could minimize negative results at UH.”

President Prince Wilson, whose presidential term will be ending this week as Michael Harding steps into office, feels strongly that cutting the budget will be a disservice to the students of UH.

“If you cut our funds, our tuition will go up making it harder for every student to succeed,” Wilson said. “The main purpose of the trip was to educate them about what students are facing and I believe we accomplished this with a great result.”

SGA’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 30 in the University Center Cougar Den.

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