Despite increased pressure from the state legislature and the Institute for Higher Learning in Jackson, Mississippi State University has not received an increase in funding. As a result, students are being forced to pay higher tuition.
An effective way to confront the problem is to have a full-time, student-run lobby to create and advocate for bills that would help college students, as well as report back to the student body on what is happening in legislature that would help inform its voting decisions.
Thanks to plans handed down from the IHL in Jackson in 2006, MSU has seen numerous buildings torn down and erected, and a huge increase in the student population.
But since then, we have also seen a consistent rise in prices for students in housing, meal plans, books and out-of-state tuition, not to mention a rise in tuition of about 6 percent for in-state students this year.
Over the past two years, this has netted a change of about $1,800 for students. Furthermore, the state has not held up to its part of the bargain: keeping funding steady despite their new goals for the university.
Many students are proud of the progress that has been made, and we should be. But the fact remains that state progress is being unduly burdened by the college students of Mississippi — who frankly have scarce resources to shoulder that load. Although doing more with less sounds great, it ultimately just leads to fewer resources over time. A demonstrable and practical solution to this problem would be to have a student association with an empowered student lobby.
The idea is not original, even to this campus. The Student Lobby at the University of California started in the 1970s and helped move millions of dollars of state money to keep tuition down and exist to this day. Then California Governor Ronald Reagan said in a 1973 Time magazine article that the group was “one of the university’s strongest assets.” Now the group has expanded its influence by gathering representatives from each of the universities in the state, and using the internet to inform students and the public at large about bills before the state legislature.
We even have a group within the MSU Student Association, the Bulldog Interest Group, that appears to have a similar function but lacks the current ability to do the job effectively. What will it take to do the job effectively? Students working in Jackson. A modern lobby is intimately connected to the entirety of the lawmaking process. In many cases, the lobby will endorse or draft legislation itself, see it through committee and through its many revisions. It also keeps members of the lobby (in this case, all of us students) informed on what is happening. This is a constant, organic process that requires ceaseless attention which can be very beneficial to college students, and, by extension, the entire university. Students who are only there occasionally to influence change will likely find their efforts are in vain, whereas a full-time lobbyist can take time to learn the ins-and-outs in order to provide for real change.
Although SA does have the Bulldog Interest Group, the program needs to be one of the cornerstones of what the group does. According to the group website, SA finds student interests and is supposed to work with the administration to help promote those interests.
But it is also in a unique position to advocate for that interest on a much greater placement scale than simply on campus. For instance, it already has a captive membership and cheap ways to communicate with it. People might not always agree on many things, but no one wants to lose $1,800; people would probably be willing to vote against that. Politicians recognize that, and also know college students are likely to become voters in the state for a long time.
Given the circumstances surrounding the lackluster support from the state legislature are not likely to change, it is important students begin to directly influence what happens with the budget.
Trey Burke is a graduate student in political science and public administration. He can be contacted at [email protected].