Students go on the offensive against state budget cuts to higher education

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett came to Pitt in March to defend his steep budget cuts to higher… Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett came to Pitt in March to defend his steep budget cuts to higher education. Angry students asked him questions to pin down why higher education was the target of the state budget for the second year in a row.

“I was elected to govern and make tough decisions, and I came here to answer your questions today,” Corbett said, as some audience members shook their heads and a few shouted back. “I understand that you are angry.”

In Corbett’s proposed budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, three out of the four Pennsylvania state-related universities — which include Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — stand to lose 30 percent of state funding from the previous year. Lincoln, by far the smallest of the four schools in terms of student population, doesn’t face a funding cut. In response, Pitt student leaders have mobilized the student body in order to highlight Pitt’s importance to the state of Pennsylvania.

Last year, Corbett proposed a 50 percent decrease in funding toward the state-related universities but settled for 19 percent when the budget was finally passed. Pitt’s tuition went up 8.5 percent for in-state students and 4 percent for out-of-state students that year.

In March, Corbett discussed the cuts with Pitt students and administrators at Pancakes and Politics, an event organized by Pitt’s Graduate & Professional Student Association. Corbett told the audience that in light of the state’s budget deficit, tough choices needed to be made.

Corbett inherited a $4 billion deficit when he took office in January 2011, so he proposed a lean $27 billion 2011-2012 budget, which included cuts targeted at higher education. He passed another slimming budget for 2012-2013 that again took aim at universities.

Corbett stressed that he was not an opponent of higher education in the state, saying that public education accounted for 40 percent of state funding. Corbett used the example of a pizza to demonstrate the portion of the budget dedicated to it.

“Pennsylvania looks at education as its No. 1 priority,” Corbett said to a group of students on Pitt’s campus on March 16. “When the pizza pie goes from an 8-inch pie to a 6-inch pie, you still have that percentage, but not enough money.”

Corbett also said raising taxes to counteract the deficit wasn’t an option because of the national economic downturn.

With the budget moving through Pennsylvania’s state legislature, Pitt’s Student Government Board is attempting to mobilize students in order to speak out against the cuts.

SGB President James Landreneau said earlier this year that Pitt Day in Harrisburg attracted 500 advocates, 130 of which were Pitt students. Students met with legislators to voice their disapproval of the cuts in the effort to rally legislators on the side of students. He added that SGB received a positive response from legislators during the event.

“Overall, I think everyone was really pleased with how it went,” Landreneau said. “We received a lot of positive feedback from students meeting with legislators, and I think this shows how important it is to continue this fight.”

SGB also began a letter-writing campaign two weeks prior to Pitt Day in Harrisburg, in which students had the opportunity to write letters to their legislators. In a program called “1787 Advocates,” SGB hoped to have 1,787 students write letters. The number represented the year when Pitt received its charter.

Despite the lull in student activism against the cuts because of the disruption on Pitt’s campus due to bomb threats in the latter part of the spring semester, student leaders continue spreading the message of Pitt’s impact on the city of Pittsburgh and state of Pennsylvania.

Robert Beecher, chairman of SGB’s Governmental Relations committee, said state subsidies allow for high-quality, affordable education for in-state residents. He added that under last year’s budget, state appropriations provided $4,500 per student, and $9,000 for in-state students.

In response to the cuts, which Beecher called “tremendously frustrating,” SGB created the slogan “No More Cuts, Keep Pitt Public.”

SGB’s slogan reflects a growing worry among Pitt’s administration: the possibility of Pitt becoming a private university.

Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg previously said the cuts toward the four state-related schools are pushing the schools toward privatization.

Charles McLaughlin, Pitt’s Director of Commonwealth Relations, also said earlier in the semester that a change to private status could end Pitt’s practice of differentiating tuition between in-state and out-of-state students. He also said that the cuts would most likely spell the end for smaller academic programs, community outreach and Pitt’s regional campuses.

“The chancellor loves the public mission, but this is our eighth cut in 12 years,” McLaughlin said in March. “To maintain the integrity of the University and the strength of University, we have to consider not being affiliated with the state.”