CSSA
strives to lighten financial load
By
Andrea Sirhall
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Financial
aid, textbook prices and voter registration
were the main topics discussed by the
California State Student Association
(CSSA) when the Board of Directors met
in the University Student Union for a
conference Saturday and Sunday.
The
CSSA is made up of representatives from
the student governments of all 23 CSU
campuses and works with the Chancellor’s
Office and the statewide Academic Senate
in an effort to influence governmental
education policy in a way beneficial
to the average student.
It also acts as a liason between these bodies and local campuses. The CSSA
also works on certain issues with the University of California Student Association
and lobbies with the United States Student Association (USSA) on issues that
have a nation-wide impact on college campuses.
The
CSSA meets before the beginning of every
academic year to decide which issues
should be its main focus. This year,
the body decided to work to reduce textbook
pricing, fight possible cuts in financial
aid and to redouble efforts to register
CSU students to vote.
The
financial aid issue is being dealt with
at both the national and state levels
of government. According to Jennifer
Brown, the organizational director of
the USSA, her organization is concerned
about the budget President George W.
Bush proposed in Feburary, which contains
a “budget reconciliation.” The
budget reconciliation cuts all mandatory
governmental spending, including funding
for Pel Grants and student loans.
“Seventy-five
percent of student financial aid comes
from the federal government,” Brown
said. “With the cuts being proposed
by the House and the Senate, the average
student will wind up paying an extra
$6,000 on their student loans.”
As
a result, an overwhelming majority of
the next generation of college students
will graduate with what the government
calls “unmanageable debt.”
Locally,
the CSSA is researching why the amount
of funding given to each student who
qualifies for a State University Grant
has been significantly decreasing over
the past two years.
The general cause is due to a compact agreement between the Chancellor’s
Office and the California state government which has decreased the percentage
of student fees that gets earmarked for funding the State University Grant
program.
CSSA
Government Liason Laura Kerr points out, “There
is more money in the program, however,
there are also more students paying higher
fees. That’s why the individual
student is awarded less money.”
However, the reasoning behind the agreement and its terms are still unclear.
The
CSSA has also decided to implement policy
that will lower textbook prices for students
in the CSU system. Sixteen other states
have passed legislation prohibiting the
application of sales tax to textbooks,
and the CSSA is beginning a campaign
to present such legislation to the California
state government.
“Although
this will lower overall textbook prices,
we’re more concerned about bringing
governmental attention to how textbook
prices are hurting students,” said
Mark Weber, the chairman of the CSSA
Legislative Affairs Committee.
The Board also discussed partnering with professors in making sure their book
requests are submitted on time, allowing the bookstores to obtain more used
copies of books, as well as asking professors to put one or two copies of their
texts on hold in campus libraries for students who absolutely cannot afford
to buy the book.
In addition, Jo Ann Aggirre, the Chancellor’s Office liaison to the CSSA,
suggested professors be made aware of exactly how much their textbooks will
cost each student in hopes this knowledge will be a factor when they decide
what textbooks to use. The possibility of pushing the implementation of a statewide
textbook rental program or a conversion to digital textbooks was also discussed.
The
last issue CSSA looked at was voter registration.
What is doubly important to the board
is that this mobilization of student
voters be documented by the media in
an effort to make the student vote more
potent to lawmakers.
“Right
now the [government’s] view is
that college students don’t vote,” Weber
said. “We want to show them that
we’re registering students to vote
so they’ll see that they need to
listen.”
Toward
this end, the CSSA discussed methods
of documenting and databasing each voter
registration as well as ways of motivating
volunteers to go and get out the vote.
For meeting times and more CSSA information,
visit www.csustudents.org. |
