Spring Break
ASCSU battles with Penley - and wins
Vimal Patel
Issue date: 5/7/07 Section: News
Immediately, Penley and the amendment were denounced - by legislators and student leaders. The rage was hot, and it mostly centered not on the content of the amendment, but the way it was introduced.
"One of the norms in the legislature is you don't surprise people," said John Straayer, CSU political science professor.
Student leaders were upset because of a lack of input. Legislators were upset because they were kept out of the loop. And both were upset because of the last-minute attempt to, as they saw it, unfairly sneak through a dramatic funding measure.
"It was a surprise to me that that was coming," said Sen. Steve Johnson, a Fort Collins Republican and member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, about the 11th hour add-on.
"We really had no input from CSU lobbyists during the budget process … I would have liked to have been a more effective advocate for CSU, but when I don't hear from them it's hard to do that."
Bacon, the author of the amendment, defended the measure and its timing.
"You seize the moment," he said. "I would not do anything different because any time I have an opportunity to help the fiscal health of CSU, I'm going to seize that opportunity."
ASCSU counters
People - especially legislators and journalists - like personal accounts. Human tales bring to life stories the way facts and statistics can't.
Ragland had one.
The Dolores native's family owns a small business in southwestern Colorado. Like most students, he gets tuition assistance. And his sister will be attending CSU next year.
This wasn't a tuition increase, the CSU administration's lobbyists argued to legislators. They were right. Technically, it wasn't. But Ragland saw the increase not in semantics, but in practical terms.
Whatever the increase is called, he said, the bottom line is his working-class family would be paying significantly more to fund his education. And a large part of his decision to attend CSU was cost.
"One of the norms in the legislature is you don't surprise people," said John Straayer, CSU political science professor.
Student leaders were upset because of a lack of input. Legislators were upset because they were kept out of the loop. And both were upset because of the last-minute attempt to, as they saw it, unfairly sneak through a dramatic funding measure.
"It was a surprise to me that that was coming," said Sen. Steve Johnson, a Fort Collins Republican and member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, about the 11th hour add-on.
"We really had no input from CSU lobbyists during the budget process … I would have liked to have been a more effective advocate for CSU, but when I don't hear from them it's hard to do that."
Bacon, the author of the amendment, defended the measure and its timing.
"You seize the moment," he said. "I would not do anything different because any time I have an opportunity to help the fiscal health of CSU, I'm going to seize that opportunity."
ASCSU counters
People - especially legislators and journalists - like personal accounts. Human tales bring to life stories the way facts and statistics can't.
Ragland had one.
The Dolores native's family owns a small business in southwestern Colorado. Like most students, he gets tuition assistance. And his sister will be attending CSU next year.
This wasn't a tuition increase, the CSU administration's lobbyists argued to legislators. They were right. Technically, it wasn't. But Ragland saw the increase not in semantics, but in practical terms.
Whatever the increase is called, he said, the bottom line is his working-class family would be paying significantly more to fund his education. And a large part of his decision to attend CSU was cost.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Brett Heeney
posted 5/30/07 @ 2:34 PM MST
As an alumnus, it's a pleasure to see one more of Dr. Strayer's student doing an exceptional job. Sure, the school needs more money every fiscal year, just as people do for cost-of-living increases and such; it's the point of making small increases annually versus very large, very impacting, increases every 5 to 10 years. (Continued…)
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