Doubts emerge over students’ effectiveness in Harrisburg

College students shed their image of political apathy this Tuesday when they went to Harrisburg… College students shed their image of political apathy this Tuesday when they went to Harrisburg to lobby against the proposed budget cuts in education.

But will it make a difference?

Faced with tuition increases and potential program cuts, students are riled due to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget reductions in higher education funding. The cuts, part of the Republican governor’s first budget, amount to almost $900 million in education spending and would reduce Pitt’s $185 million appropriation by more than half, to $80.2 million. The appropriation was less than 10 percent of Pitt’s budget this year, and would be less than 5 percent under Corbett’s plan.

So students have written letters and lobbied legislators. But a Pitt political science professor said the efforts might not work, because of what Pitt students did at the polls five months ago.

Professor Susan Hansen said students might not have as much an effect on the legislative process as hoped for, “because they don’t vote.”

“Legislators respond to people who are willing to make an effort to express their opinion,” she said. “Students don’t have a lot of an effect because they don’t vote in large numbers, and certainly not in the primaries.”

In the November 2010 general elections, only 17.14 percent of 4,252 registered voters came to the polls in Ward 4 District 8 — which covers much of Oakland. Ward 4 District 14, another Oakland district, had a slightly better turnout at 17.43 percent of 1,377 voters.

Despite this lackluster voting record, several of the legislators who met with students expressed support for the students’ effort to get involved.

State Rep. Marguerite Quinn, R-Doylestown, said in an e-mail that she does not support the budget proposal in its present form.

“I appreciate the fact that the students took time away from their studies to make the long trek to Harrisburg to speak with me and my colleagues,” she said. “I met with kids from several different schools and campuses, and my opposition to the deep cuts in higher education was confirmed.”

Hansen also had issues with the budget cuts.

“[The government] can’t borrow the money. They can’t steal it. They can’t print it. So they have to take it out of someone else’s hide,” Hansen said.

State Rep. John Bear, R-Lancaster, said that Pitt students did a good job advocating for Pitt.

With the state budget of $27.3 billion, cuts will have to be made, state Rep. Mike Reese, R-Mount Pleasant, said.

“We’re facing some difficult times,” Reese said. “There is a budget cut of 52 percent to higher education. I think that some of that should be restored. Not all, but some.”

The most influential part of lobbying is the personal connection with legislators not available through public demonstrations and press conferences, Hansen said.

Paul Supowitz, vice chancellor for Governmental Relations, said the Pitt Day in Harrisburg tradition helps “personalize the issue” students might have with legislators.

“Democracy is not a spectator sport. It works best when everyone participates,” Sen. Robert Robbins, R-Greenville, said in an e-mail.

Students who lobbied in Harrisburg remained optimistic that their efforts will influence the result of the final budget.

Sophomore Rich White, a political science major, acknowledged that college students are generally known for being apathetic, but that makes this week’s lobbying effort of students stand out even more.

“I think the legislators are pleasantly surprised to have students go toe-to-toe with them,” White said. “And when people our age can come and do that, it shows that Pitt is training them to be able to engage with people this way.”

“Legislators tend to listen most carefully to those who listen and vote,” Supowitz said.

Supowitz also said, however, that students showing up, in person, to relay their own personal story about how it will impact them is most effective.

“And don’t forget, for every one student, there are two parents and a family who are affected,” Supowitz said.

Student Government Board president Molly Stieber is confident that the legislators listened to the concerns of the students, and that the the cuts in the final budget won’t be as severe.

“Our budget is subject to be cut every year,” Stieber said, adding that students might forget that.

Pitt’s appropriation has been cut six times in the past 10 years.

Stieber described this year’s Pitt Day in Harrisburg as “bittersweet.”

“It’s great that so many students were there, but it took until this year’s budget to get them there,” she said.

However, Stieber said this year’s Pitt Day was successful because more students have turned out this year than in the past.

“The more presence in Harrisburg, the better,” Stieber said.