SGA in ATX
UH’s student leader isn’t just asking you to sign a petition; he’s also taking the fight against the upcoming budget cuts directly to the State Capitol.
In a letter dated Feb. 16, Prince Wilson, president of UH’s Student Government Association, highlighted the effects budget cuts would have on the UH community.
“We are already facing fiscal issues due to the current state of the economy and it is not acceptable for the state to reduce our source of funding,” Wilson said in the letter. “Our tuition will rise dramatically, important courses will be eliminated, student services will be reduced and many more significant factors of our education will be either completely removed or will face a reduction.”
Wilson has also stressed the additional cuts that are unaccounted for in the estimated cuts to financial aid.
The House and Senate budgets both propose eliminating the TEXAS Grant program, which helps many first-time students pay for college.
UH is expected to lose up to $65 million for the biennium — and this excludes the TEXAS Grant cuts, which account for $19 million per year, Wilson said.
“These cuts will affect the majority of our students who are struggling really hard to earn an education in the midst of this tough economic situation,” Wilson said.
In response, Wilson invited the community to sign ‘Texans Against Higher Education Budget Cuts,’ an online petition created for the cause.
“It’s crucial that we as students stand together to say ‘no’ to these budget cuts,” he said.
On Feb. 2, Wilson took the first of several anticipated trips to Austin for educational sessions with representatives from Houston and Harris County.
“The SGA will make several trips to Austin in upcoming weeks to meet with state legislators, and will fight for the future of Texas,” Wilson said. “We have to unite as one voice in the state of Texas and say ‘no’ to these budget cuts.”
During his trip to Austin, Wilson met with state senators Rodney Ellis and John Whitmire.
He also met with the staffs of senators Dan Patrick, Judith Zaffirini, Steve Ogden and Mario Gallegos.
For more information on the UH budget crisis, visit www.uh.edu/af/budgetbiennialFY12-FY13.htm. To sign the petition, go to SGA’s website at www.uh.edu/sga.
I applaud the SGA for working to keep this issue at the forefront of the Texas Legislature as well as student consciousness. For anyone that has not signed the petition- please do so. It only takes a minute of your time.
Sign the petition at: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43058.html
I find it humorous that Dumb Patrick couldn't even be bothered to meet our SGA president personally.
Well, not humorous. Patrick is head of the Ree Tardy caucus, a bunch of anti-education assholes.
Check his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Patrick_%28Texas…
He's been caught saying that anything but engineering and medical research, "nobody cares about."
He also endorses the antieducation vitriol of Michael Quinn Sullivan, who lies and claims to find "waste" in public education by saying there is a "1 to 1 ratio" of teachers to nonteachers. How does he get there? By counting part-time janitors, volunteer teachers' aides, and bus drivers; not counting ESL, deaf interpreters, and special education workers as teachers; and double-counting any teacher who puts in extra hours at a nonteaching role such as athletic coach.
The problem facing education is simple: a bunch of uneducated, hateful right-wing Ree Tardiers are mismanaging the budget after giving their billionaire buddies tax breaks.
NO PAY CUTS TO PAY FOR BILLIONAIRE TAX CUTS.
I'd like to know if Governor "Goodhair" and the rest of his right wing pals plan on applying the same amount of cuts to his alma mater, A&M; as well as Rice and UT as they are planning for every other Texas college.
Lol. One of the SGA senators did a bit of math on the proposed budget. Looking at UT, A&M, UH and Tech (Rice is private, so state money is negligible), UH gets cuts of a whopping 19.28% per student, while UT and the Aggies are sitting at 15 and 16% respectively (rounding up, of course). http://sga.uh.edu/images/PDFs/budgetanalysis.pdf
Call whoever your state rep and senator is. Then call a few more and pretend to live in their district. http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/frequently… http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/Members….
Keep up the good work everyone. This is something each and every student in the school, the state, and the nation should all fight for. Our differences don't matter anymore because our position as students is what bonds us the most now. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, we must all hang together, or we will all hang separately.