Nineteen University of Wisconsin students attended UW Lobbying Day 2023 to persuade Wisconsin legislators on the importance of a focus on mental health and housing crisis in the state budget, according to UW-Madison Legislative Affairs Committee Chair MGR Govindarajan.
Student representatives from UW-Madison focused on lobbying for mental health support and improving the housing crisis, Govindarajan said. As a whole, the UW System schools sought to lobby for mental health support, a compensation plan and the Wisconsin tuition promise.
“Its main goal is to speak to legislators about issues that affect our school,” Govindarajan said. “The thing that students gain directly from this is that this is part of the civic engagement process. It’s more than just voting, it’s more than just showing up at your election — it’s an opportunity to speak with your legislators to make your voices heard and make those connections.”
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UW-Madison collaborated with the 12 other UW System universities leading up to the event, according to Govindarajan. Due to inclement weather, only four universities had student representation at UW Lobbying Day.
This was the second UW Lobbying Day since the event returned last year for the first time since 2013.
This year’s lobbying day followed the governor’s State of the State Address and budget proposal. Govindarajan lobbied with the governor’s office on behalf of the Associated Students of Madison for 14 months leading up to the budget’s creation to increase funding for mental health and to address the affordable housing crisis.
“Specifically, we wanted to make sure that UHS and the other university health service providers within the UW system as a whole [are] funded more adequately,” Govindarajan said in Wednesday’s ASM meeting.
In Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed budget, there is no mental health-specific funding for UW-Madison. But Govindarajan said this funding would be available through General Purpose Revenue if the budget was approved.
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The governor’s budget also proposes full funding for the Wisconsin Tuition Promise, Govindarajan said. UW student representatives hoped to lobby for maintaining this funding in the final approved budget during UW Lobbying Day.
Creating policy for tuition equity for undocumented students is also a part of Evers’ proposed budget, but Govindarajan said most policy-based budget items will not be included in the final budget due to rejections from the Republican-majority Legislature.
In past budgets, Evers included money to maintain a tuition freeze from the pandemic. This is a policy that was removed in this biennial budget, meaning tuition is expected to rise in the coming year, according to Govindarajan.
