UC students focus lobby conference on budget

More than 340 students were expected to descend on Sacramento for the University of California Student Association's annual Student Lobby Conference.

The event, March 1 to 3, teaches students how to lobby their district legislators and to develop advocacy skills they can take back to their campuses.

"A lot of people think lobbying is intimidating, especially young students" said Courtney Weaver, legislative director for the student association and a 2006 UC Santa Barbara alumna. "We'll teach them it's not such a scary process. They have the right to go in and fight for their cause."

This year the cause most on student minds is the escalating state budget deficit and the impact it could have on student fees and services.

"Although we are facing a $14.5 dollar budget deficit, there is no slowdown in student activism for higher education issues," said UC Berkeley student Maximillian Reyes. "In fact, it has been only making us do more organizing. We know it's going to be an uphill battle to keep the UC a truly public institution, but I believe that students across the state are doing an excellent job of making the public aware of the crisis college students are in and what negative consequences will occur if this trend in fee increases continues."

At UC Merced, students share the additional concerns of maintaining support for UC's newest campus. The students want to work collaboratively with their legislators, said junior Danielle Traphagen, to preserve state support for public education and for UC Merced until it is self-sustaining.

Melissa Atkins, UC Irvine student legislative liaison, teaches a one-unit class in lobbying on her campus, which is sending 52 students to the three-day event. Although Atkins will graduate this year, she said she wants to do something to benefit future UC students.

"Our main goal is to insure access and affordability for UC and higher education in general," said Atkins.

The student groups will be asking legislators to freeze fees, she said, but if that isn't possible to minimize budget cut impacts by maintaining funding for financial aid, student mental health services, graduate student support and academic preparation.