Representatives from a coalition of University of Wisconsin organizations descended upon Gov. Jim Doyle’s office Friday afternoon to deliver more than 5,000 signatures requesting additional state aid for the UW System.
The signatures, collected by student organizations including the Student Labor Action Coalition, Associated Students of Madison and the Teaching Assistants Association, were delivered in time for Doyle’s biennial budget proposal Tuesday.
However, the roughly 20 representatives were unable to reach Doyle and were instead forced to meet with an aid to the governor. In response, students left half of the signatures with Doyle’s office and delivered the other 2,500 to another state official, Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire.
“We hoped someone in the office was paying attention,” SLAC member Joel Feingold said.
Kreibich, chair of the State Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee, proposed a bill Feb. 3 capping tuition at 3 percent for the next two years.
According to SLAC member Ruth Castel-Branco, the student representatives decided Kreibich would be more sympathetic to UW students’ cause.
“Doyle doesn’t have a very good record of prioritizing the UW System,” Castel-Branco said. “We decided that it might be beneficial to visit some of the other representatives.”
However, according to Feingold, it is important representative Kreibich is aware students did not find his proposal sufficient to take care of rising tuition costs.
“[We hoped he saw] these people are interested and want to see reform from this committee,” Feingold said. “We gave them enough [signatures], so he knew we were watching him.”
While most of students’ concerns are related to tuition, Feingold emphasized another goal of their petition was to challenge diversity issues in the UW System.
According to Feingold, the state has not implemented Plan 2008, which is having a serious impact on both the UW System and the state.
“The number of African American students coming into [the university] in the early 1970s [was] slightly higher than it is this year,” Feingold added.
Still, both Feingold and Castel-Branco said they felt the petition was a success.
“We hope people get on board,” Feingold said. “We hope people join the campaign.”
