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On Monday, March 6, 2006 some 300 students from more than 25 schools met with nearly 130 legislators at NYPIRG's Higher Education Lobby Day. Students from across the state joined the effort to urge for a student friendly budget that includes increased funding for higher education and financial aid, without harmful tuition hikes. [Please click here for link to news release and photos.]To follow up on that effort, please students across the state should take action by emailing letters to urge legislators to reject the governor's higher education recommendations and to oppose tuition hikes.
Sample letter As a college student in New York State, I write to urge you to reject the governor's higher education recommendations for 2006-07. I am strongly opposed to any tuition hike at SUNY or CUNY. Instead of raising tuition, the state should be increasing funding for higher education. Please negotiate a truly student-friendly budget that:
- Holds the line on tuition and rejects any automatic annual tuition hike scheme.
- Increases funding for SUNY and CUNY by $153.5 million and $67.5 million, respectively to cover the universities' basic costs and support more full-time faculty.
- Rejects the governor's TAP proposals and enhances the program to allow for mid-year adjustments in extenuating circumstances.
- Further increases funding for community colleges by a total of $250 per FTE.
- Doubles funding for all the opportunity programs as the governor has recommended for STEP and C-STEP.
SUNY and CUNY students deserve a high quality, affordable, accessible education. Please provide the additional state funding needed to help our students become productive and successful citizens.
Sincerely yours,
[Student name]
[Address with zip code]Please email the following state leaders:
Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, speaker@assembly.state.ny.us
Joseph Bruno, Majority Leader of the New York State Senate, bruno@senate.state.ny.us
Ron Canestrari, Chairperson of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, canestr@assembly.state.ny.us
Ken LaValle, Chairperson of the Senate Higher Education Committee, lavalle@senate.state.ny.us
It is also important to alert your elected representatives from your home and school districts.
To find out who represents you, go to http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/search.asp if you live anywhere in New York State and look for your New York State Senator and Assemblymember's information.
Once you find out who represents you and their email address, cut and paste the letter [click her to link to letter] into the body of the email to send to your elected representative. The subject of your email should be specific, e.g. student-friendly budget for higher education. You can also email directly from the Senate (www.senate.state.ny.us) and Assembly (www.assembly.state.ny.us) websites.
Please feel free to edit these letters. You might want to add some personal details such as how much financial aid you receive, how you pay for college, how many credits you're taking, or how many hours you currently work to pay for school.
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