The ASWSU Senate heard Wednesday from members of the Legislative Affairs department. Deputy Directors Bhargav Iyer and Tucker Senter spoke in front of the senate, sharing updates for the upcoming Coug Day at the Capitol on Jan. 26 and 27.
Iyer and Senter spoke on behalf of Legislative Affairs Director Collin Bannister as he works alongside other members of the Washington Student Association in Olympia.
“He’s really engaging with not only our Senate representatives, but also our fellow students who are also working on advocating for their campuses,” Iyer said.
Iyer and Senter spoke further on preparations for Coug Day at the Capitol, and gave insights into the current legislative session in Olympia.
“Our state is currently in a $13 billion budget deficit. That means we are short $13 billion for any of our programs that we have not codified into law.” Iyer said. “Higher education is often the first to get cut from this pool of low budget items. As such, we need to work very, very hard this session to make sure that our budget is equalized and we advocate properly for everything that we want to keep.”
One such program put at risk is the Native American Scholarship, which Senter advocated for.
Senter said that roughly 100 students on campus benefit from the Native American Scholarship.
“That’s a lot of money those 100 students get,” Senter said. “[If] we don’t get funding for that again this year, that just goes away.”
Without student voices, programs like the Native American Scholarship and the Washington College Grant might not receive the attention and support of legislators, Senter said.
“Unless students actually go and talk to these people, they’re not going to know what students need and what they want,” Senter said.
Iyer and Senter urged members of the Senate to attend their required meetings to qualify for participation in Coug Day at the Capitol.
“Because this is such a turbulent time over in Olympia, student voices are more important than they really have been in Coug Days past,” Senter said. “We need your student stories. We need you guys to show up and represent the people that you guys are supposed to represent.”
Senter said the Cougar Lobbying Team will host a few virtual make-up meetings in order to prepare as many ASWSU members for Coug Day at the Capitol.
“This is a $13 billion budget deficit. This will impact us for the next four years minimum. Please, please make sure you guys do your best to represent your constituents at our state level,” Iyer said.
Before finishing, Iyer departed with words of hope for members of the senate.
“This does seem like a dark situation, but we have a lot of people on the ground who are working on this actively,” Iyer said. “It is a bad budget situation. We will work around it, we will survive. Wazzu has a history of being the underdog – that is why a lot of us chose to come here, and that is the legacy we choose to carry on.”
