Students lobby at Capitol for more funding
Oregon students, faculty take last chance push for higher ed. funding
By: Stover E. Harger III
Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: News
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Around 20 Portland State students boarded a bus to Salem Wednesday to lobby for higher education funding to the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education.
Those PSU students joined forces with over a hundred other Oregon students, faculty and business owners to lobby to the subcommittee on the importance of a fully funded higher education budget.
PSU student body president Courtney Morse spoke of her own difficulties paying for higher education and how they relate to many students in Oregon. Morse said it is her job to bring those stories to the Legislature.
"This is a story you'll hear a million times over," Morse said. "We've been working really closely with the PSU administration, but our job is to bring the student voice and I think we've done that."
In her three years at PSU, Morse said she has racked up around $30,000 of debt. She said it reached the point where she said she has to realistically decide whether or not she can even go to PSU next year.
Testifiers including deans at Oregon State University, a representative from Intel who hires many higher education graduates and Portland Mayor Tom Potter, spoke to the committee about the many ways higher education can benefit Oregon. Potter addressed Portland State specifically.
"I would like to address the vital role that PSU plays in our community," Potter said. "Threats to the institution are threats to our city."
Potter focused much of his speech on the matter of capital construction and deferred maintenance to PSU's buildings, Lincoln Hall and Science Building 2. Senator Vicki Walker, a member of the committee, visited PSU in February to tour the buildings.
"We've all been to Lincoln Hall," Walker said about seeing the needed repairs to the building firsthand.
The proposed co-chair's budget of the House Ways and Means committee would invest $300 million less for capital construction projects than Governor Ted Kulongoski's previously proposed budget. The committee's proposed budget would invest $60 million total for capital construction, while the repairs on Lincoln Hall and Science Building 2 alone would total $76 million.
Those PSU students joined forces with over a hundred other Oregon students, faculty and business owners to lobby to the subcommittee on the importance of a fully funded higher education budget.
PSU student body president Courtney Morse spoke of her own difficulties paying for higher education and how they relate to many students in Oregon. Morse said it is her job to bring those stories to the Legislature.
"This is a story you'll hear a million times over," Morse said. "We've been working really closely with the PSU administration, but our job is to bring the student voice and I think we've done that."
In her three years at PSU, Morse said she has racked up around $30,000 of debt. She said it reached the point where she said she has to realistically decide whether or not she can even go to PSU next year.
Testifiers including deans at Oregon State University, a representative from Intel who hires many higher education graduates and Portland Mayor Tom Potter, spoke to the committee about the many ways higher education can benefit Oregon. Potter addressed Portland State specifically.
"I would like to address the vital role that PSU plays in our community," Potter said. "Threats to the institution are threats to our city."
Potter focused much of his speech on the matter of capital construction and deferred maintenance to PSU's buildings, Lincoln Hall and Science Building 2. Senator Vicki Walker, a member of the committee, visited PSU in February to tour the buildings.
"We've all been to Lincoln Hall," Walker said about seeing the needed repairs to the building firsthand.
The proposed co-chair's budget of the House Ways and Means committee would invest $300 million less for capital construction projects than Governor Ted Kulongoski's previously proposed budget. The committee's proposed budget would invest $60 million total for capital construction, while the repairs on Lincoln Hall and Science Building 2 alone would total $76 million.
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