Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992 TAG: 9201290147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
COLLEGE STUDENTS FACE LEGISLATURE WITH ISSUES
More than 75 college students took vans, cars and bumpy bus rides to Richmond Tuesday to stand up in front of the legislature.A few of them were to speak before the House Appropriations committee; others were to talk with representatives about the problems plaguing higher education.
The rest, students from Virginia Tech, Radford University, William and Mary, the University of Virginia and others, were to stand up behind them.
A long way to go? Perhaps.
"But they deserve our moral support," said one Tech graduate student. And after all, added another, this was for something they all believed in: a quality education.
"Everyone's been so deeply affected by the budget cuts," Dawn Greenleif, a Tech junior, said as the bus rolled along U.S. 64. "The quality of education is being reduced."
And the students, said UVa's Andre Morgan, are getting angry.
"There are higher tuition rates and a decrease in services," he said. "There's something wrong with that. . . . We're angry that higher education is not the priority it should be."
The buses from Tech and other schools were half full, not bad when tests and papers are factored in, the students said. Still, they had hoped for more.
"Maybe we should just ask people off the street," suggested Stefan Hall before the bus left Tech campus. The group - members of student government, graduate students and even an exchange student from Australia - seemed optimistic. But they weren't idealistic about the reception they would receive.
"It has to have some effect," said Ret Sacco, a senior in psychology and management. Like the other students, she studied a sheet that explained the budget effects on Tech's campus. "We're showing them something. We're showing them our concern."
And if legislators share that concern, Greenleif added, "if they have common sense, they'll do something."
It was important for the schools to stand together, said Melissa Browning, president of Radford University's student government. "Even if we don't talk to anyone, we're making our presence known."
And as the students trooped down the hall of the capitol building, their presence was indeed noticed. Receptionists looked up from their desks and staff members peered into the committee room as the students asked for support of a bond referendum that would fund construction projects, and for tax increases on luxury items and cigarettes that could be earmarked for education.
"If the quality of higher education is going to continue, we need more money," said Matt Cooper, head of the Virginia Student Association. "Education cuts never heal."
Kenneth Kahn, a graduate student at Tech, surveyed the crowded room, the people sitting on stairs, standing in doorways.
"This reminds me of a typical class at Virginia Tech today," he said.
The visit to Richmond was meant more to prevent future cuts and to garner support for a general obligation bond than anything else, said Matthew Stegura, legislative affairs chairman for the Student Government Association. A senior from Pittsburgh, he has talked with legislators before. This trip was his first real lobbying attempt.
And though the students' presence in the afternoon got attention, morning meetings with the legislators were frustrating, said Tony Townsend, president of Tech's Graduate Student Assembly.
"What we kept hearing, over and over, was that higher education was not perceived by the electorate as serving the people of the commonwealth. It's somehow distanced itself from ordinary people."
It was frustrating, too, following other lobbying groups as they walked in and out of the legislators offices, everyone asking for something else. It makes them feel, Townsend confided, like prostitutes. But it gave the first-time lobbyists something to work toward.
"We have to establish a link between higher education and the good of the commonwealth," Townsend said. "We have to show that if we produce business majors, we're also producing managers, people who can run factories."
No one was talking about tax increases during the morning sessions, but during the subcommittee meeting, it came up more than once.
"Would you support an increase?" subcommittee Chairman Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, asked those who testified during the 90-minute hearing.
"I personally will pay more to get what we need for the future of our state," said Anthony Santoro, president of Christopher Newport College, amid applause.
Santoro and others were there to plead for salary increases for faculty and staff - if not now, then soon.
"There has not been a mass exodus of faculty," Tech President James McComas said. "But we are already being robbed" at some institutions.
Santoro said, "If there are no raises, God will still be in heaven, Mr. Jefferson will still be at Monticello. But Mr. Jefferson will surely be unhappy."
The show of support did appear to move some of the legislators, though none of them made any promises.
"You got the message to us that you care, and that you care about the system," Diamonstein said. "It is understood and appreciated."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.