Despite efforts by ASU students who have formed a cross-campus coalition against cuts to funding for higher education in Arizona, their work likely won’t influence any votes for fiscal year 2012, two state legislators said.
The proposed cuts would eliminate approximately $171 million from higher-education funding across the state, with $70 to $80 million of that coming from ASU.
“There is a zero-percent chance we can reduce the cuts,” said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat.
In fact, Sinema said, the proposed cuts may increase before they reach the legislature.
Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, echoed this remark, saying the cuts will likely be closer to $200 million when they are voted upon.
He added that there is little students can do to affect the depth or passage of the cuts.
“A big turnout from students isn’t going to have a big impact,” Kavanagh said. “No more than a big turnout of Tea Partiers is going to have a big impact.”
Hearing this “is very disheartening to the people who have to deal with these cuts,” said Daiyaan Colbert, ASASUD freshman senator.
Colbert initiated the original plan to stand against the cuts on the Downtown campus.
ASU Against Cuts to Higher Education was created from several organizations that spanned all four ASU campuses. Its goal is to educate students and community members about the cuts in an effort to reduce them, Colbert said.
The actual schedule and scope of events is still being determined. Colbert said that events are going to begin later in March, but he was not sure when or where.
Some of the events that are being discussed include tabling, canvassing and informational sessions on all four campuses, as well as various yet-undetermined events hosted by ASU’s student governments.
Rallying and protests are not anticipated to be a large part of the program’s strategy of informing the public about the cuts.
“We don’t want to mobilize thousands of students if it isn’t going to be effective,” Colbert said.
Kavanagh said that rallies and protests do little to change votes or legislators’ opinions. Constituents writing personal e-mails or letters to their representatives is much more effective, he said.
Sinema also said she believes rallying to be ineffective.
“I don’t think that protesting is going to have an impact on the vote,” she said. “Protesting isn’t useless, but it’s not (going to) change votes.”
Sinema suggested the most successful way to influence budget cuts is to vote representatives into the state legislature who prioritize higher education.
One potential solution to the cuts that was presented by Kavanagh at a House Appropriations Committee meeting was to charge a specific section of ASU students to make up for the lost state funding.
According to Kavanagh, as he learned from various meetings regarding the cuts to higher education, approximately half of the in-state students who attend ASU don’t pay any tuition.
He went on to say that, if all of the students who don’t pay tuition paid $3,500 in tuition, an amount that, he said, could be covered by loans, ASU would more than make up for the loss in state funding.
“During these hard times … everyone should shoulder some of the weight,” Kavanagh said.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
