By Liz Geyer
Here’s why students should vote yes on UCSA and USSA: In a
year of budget surpluses and a booming economy, our federal
government continues to spend less than 2 percent of the national
budget on education, and our state legislature continues to
underfund public education while increasing prison spending.
College attendance rates continue to increase on the state and
national levels, but more and more students are being forced to
finance their educations through loans. The average student with
loans now graduates $15,000 in debt.
This year, young people are being asked to vote for a president
and Congress that will determine our country’s priorities as
we enter the new millennium.
The University of California Students Association and the United
States Student Association are the only student-run and
student-funded organizations that represent our concerns to the UC
Board of Regents, the state legislature, the governor, Congress,
the Department of Education and the White House.
UCSA and USSA organize students through grassroots campaigns on
issues that increase access to, and the quality of, higher
education.
Issues that both organizations are actively working on include
state and federal financial aid, strengthening campus safety
guidelines, combating hate crimes, increasing diversity and
defending affirmative action on a national level, as well as
Student Vote 2000 registration and education campaigns.
Both organizations have track records of winning concrete
victories for students. In the past two years, USSA has won an
increase in the maximum Pell Grant, the cornerstone of financial
aid for low-income students, and helped defeat congressional
attempts to cut the federal education budget. UCSA worked to stop
the outrageous tuition increase of 135 percent over five years, and
won a 5 percent fee rollback two years in a row.
Students across the country and at UCLA have been outraged by an
increase in hate crimes and intolerance. UCSA has organized to make
UC campuses free of the many types of discrimination that lead to
bias-related violence, including winning domestic partnership
benefits, increasing campus resources for women, LGBT students, and
students of color and organizing a Hate Crimes Conference.
On a national level USSA has organized students to encourage
Congress to pass an expanded Hate Crimes Prevention Act and
Violence Against Women Act.
For only $2 per student per quarter we can continue our
membership in these important organizations. Vote yes on UCSA and
USSA!