Last Wednesday, campus delegations made up of presidents, students, alumni and community leaders came together at the Capitol for the annual CSU Spring Advocacy Day. This year’s event was unique in that it became a joint effort between CSU and the California State Student Association (CSSA) membership to advocate on behalf of both the state budget and AB 302 (De la Torre).

With the highest participation rate in its history thanks in great part to student participation, over a hundred attendees were briefed in the morning on issues of importance to the CSU. These issues included the Governor’s budget and the CSU’s needs within that budget as well as a key financial aid bill that would ultimately assist many students by authorizing their grant money be paid in the first year of enrollment at a CSU.

While the message was clear that the CSU was asking for support of the January budget and the May revision, including a $3.6 million funding for nursing students, there were a few additional items that would have a great impact on the CSU if they were to not be funded. CSU delegates urged their legislative representatives to consider supporting an augmentation of $46 million to fund the 6,300 more students who were admitted to CSU but are not funded for the new academic year; to support competitive salaries and health benefits for our faculty and staff for the 2007/08 fiscal year with a needed $41 million; and to restore the $7 million reduction in critical student outreach funds included in Governor’s May revision of CSU’s 2007/08 budget.

Thanks in great part to the participants of the day and their hard work at the Capitol meeting with their legislative representatives, the outreach funds along with the additional funding for nursing students has now been restored in the Governor’s Budget!

AB 302 which recommends changes to the Cal Grant program that would better reflect the needs of today's students and make more students eligible to receive aid from the state Cal Grant program was also the focus of many conversations. The proposal is being held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee due to its fiscal impact and the timing for this advocacy effort by campuses and students was perfect.

Campus delegations met with the majority of their legislative representative on this measure and the feedback from these meetings was positive. The bill will be heard no later than this Thursday and needs to be passed out of the Appropriations committee in order to continue through the legislative process this session.

Due to the effort on behalf of last Wednesday’s participants CSU hopes the bill will continue to make its way to the Governor’s desk for signature.