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United Council pressures state
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Also by Carl Jaeger:
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With the state budget nearly two months behind schedule, a group of University of Wisconsin students are letting their disapproval be known to the UW Budget Conference Committee.
Several members from the United Council of UW Students met outside the conference committee's meeting Wednesday with hopes of putting a face on the people directly affected by the budget indecision.
United Council organizes and lobbies on behalf of the UW System's 120,000 students, said Patrick O'Connell, organizing and communications director for United Council.
O'Connell said his organization is fed up with the committee's inability to agree on a budget and will continue to meet at each week’s meeting until a budget is decided upon.
"We're here because the conference committee has, frankly, taken too long to pass a budget that the UW System and students need to begin their fall semester," O'Connell said, adding that the committee's indecision is affecting financial aid and staffing concerns for UW System schools.
"Right now 3,800 students across the UW System have not gotten their higher education grants because the budget is still in hearing," O'Connell said. "That's 3,800 students who … don't know if they're going to be able to afford classes."
O'Connell said he sympathized with students unsure of their academic futures because he attended UW for a period of time, but was forced to drop out due to "out-of-state tuition, higher tuition and lower financial aid."
The budget has been difficult to settle this year, O'Connell said, because of partisan arguing on both sides.
"It's never been easy to get an education budget that really reflects what we want, but I don't think anyone would claim that there has been a harder budget process than this year," O'Connell said.
Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for state budget conference committee member Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, disagreed with O'Connell, claiming the budget issues are due to Democrats refusing to negotiate.
"We're all upset that it's taken this long," Prentiss said. "As long as the Senate Dems are going to dig their heels in and refuse to budge, we're not going to have a budget."
Prentiss added that "it takes two to tango," and said the Democrats are currently too focused on partisan attacks.
Josh Westcott, spokesperson for budget conference committee member Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said the budget is one of the highest priorities the Democrats are talking about.
Westcott said with financial aid packages unknown for many, they are jeopardizing the "future workforce and future generation."
"We will continue to work together," Westcott said. "There is a give and take, and we've shown that."
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said he also empathized with students who are unsure of their educational future, adding that if students have talent and ambition, it is unfair for a family's financial situation to stand in the way of a college education.
"It's important for the students who aren't getting their financial aid because they're eligible to receive it," Black said. "They're dependent on this financially."
Black is planning a press conference at 1:30 today in Library Mall to discuss the current budget situation and what action he believes needs to be taken.
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Ahh United Council, shows up whenever they is a vote on campus to keep them as a lobbiest, and then shows up at a the capitol only months after the budget was to be passed. - Germain E. Stemme
Ahh Germain E. Stemme, shows up whenever they is something utterly banal and predictable to prattle about. What divine providence has graced us all with the opportunity to witness such masterful discourse! I just came in my pants a little. - Germain Q. Stemme
United Council, in fact, has been not only at the Capitol lobbying the conference committee every week; but lobbying the joint finance committee since the spring; and working with other legislators to help close the conference committee and produce a UW-student favorable budget. It’s not a matter of lobbying. It’s a matter of standing up for students.
UC = Useless Crap.
The only reason UC even exists or needs to exist is that the UW students who live in Madison are too privileged to care about tuition, or too overworked to take to the streets. Thus UC is only a band aid to cover bourgeois apathy and working-class struggles. What they really need to do is get out of bed with the powerless and timid Democrats and start organizing and educating students.
… and what of the other 20 uw campuses that are active members in the organization…