United Council held a conference at the Capitol Monday to protest its exclusion from a legislative hearing involving university admissions and followed the conference by marching down State St. to Memorial Union.
United Council, a statewide organization established to represent University of Wisconsin System students, voiced anger that the Center for Equal Opportunity was invited to the Capitol for a closed hearing, but a representative of the student body was not at Monday’s conference.
“[The Legislature] hold special hearings with qualifications with admission that none of us hold up to,” Damon Terrell, who led the conference, said. “While they listen to some outside agitators talk about internal issues where we have primary authority and responsibility, they ignore issues that they have primary responsibility over. We’re no longer going to listen to that.”
The state Legislature heard testimony from CEO regarding the process for admissions at UW two hours after United Council’s press conference. The committee focused on the findings contained in two recent CEO studies.
In a statement, United Council said holistic admissions is an important issue to many students, but they did not understand the Legislature’s interest in the CEO’s recent report that they describe as “politically motivated” and “misguided.”
Terrell introduced a number of speakers that talked about a wide range of issues they felt were more important to the student body.
Co-President of the Teaching Assistants’ Association Alex Hannah spoke at the conference about the privatization of education and the effects budget cuts have on the public education system. Hannah said $250 million was cut from the UW System’s budget this year, with half of that being absorbed by this campus alone.
Hannah then said the K-12 system was moving towards a system of privatization and charter schools that emphasize standard tests and NCLB requirements, rather than quality one-on-one student teacher time.
“Our legislators have the ears full of other things and issues that don’t exist. We need a re-commitment to funding public education in this state so that every Wisconsin youth has access to public education [and] not one controlled by private interest and corporations,” Hannah said.
David Vines, a UW sophomore and Student Services Finance Committee representative, voiced his problems with the new voter ID laws.
He said that the legislators have made it harder for students to vote in state elections.
“Voter ID requirements disproportionately affect students, lower-income families, minorities, the elderly and the disabled. I’ve got three forms of voter ID: a student ID, a passport and a driver’s license, and I still can’t legally vote in this state,” Vines said.
Sarah Lamb, another TAA member and a UW graduate student, spoke at the press conference about how the cuts to public education will affect teaching assistants around the state.
Lamb also expressed concerns about the affordability of education in Wisconsin.
“Because of decreased state funding and increased tuition, higher education at public education universities in Wisconsin have become unaffordable for many families in Wisconsin. The median income of UW students is unacceptably higher than median income of families across the state. This means a decrease in diversity in race and class,” she said.
