Student co-presidents fight against statewide educational budget cuts
Whenever the Texas government is looking to balance its books, higher education can be the first place it starts.
The state did just that in July when it cut higher education spending by about 15 percent in response to a $15 billion budget shortfall.
In the midst of these cuts, a group of UTD students formed the North Texas Student Campaign, or NTSC, to convince the state govern- ment to stop slashing university funds.“We are fighting for higher education,” said political science senior and NTSC co-founder Andrew Previc. “Students were tossed by the wayside. You cannot balance the budget on the backs of students.”
NTSC was created August 2011 as a joint project between Previc and Britanny Ellenberg, political science juniors, two months after the state cut its higher education budget in July.
The two developed the NTSC to convince local state representatives and senators about the impor- tance of a college degree, Previc said, so that in the 2013 budget round, these congress members may fight against cuts in higher education spending.
Although the campaign is only two months old, it has already garnered attention from Texas state representatives such as Jerry Madden, a state councilman from Collin County.Madden, and representatives like him, will receive volunteering assistance and votes from NTSC members so long as he agrees with the importance of a college edu- cation and promises not to cut its budget in the future.
Apart from the votes and volunteering, Previc said state officials should care about higher education because it’s a great investment for Texas.For every $1 invested in higher education, $8 is generated for the state through research, work with businesses and patents, according to 2007 research conducted by the Perryman Group.
In order to achieve their campaign’s goal of eliminating higher education budget cuts come 2013, Previc and Basil Musharbash, political science sophmore and co-director of NTSC, divided their campaign into six committees which include event coordination, marketing and volunteer coordination. Each committee is headed by a student and Musharbash is head of outreach — a committee responsible for coordinating activities with other North Texas campuses.
Although NTSC is stationed at UTD, it will soon include students from three other campuses: Richland College, Collin College and El Centro College. The campaign has not yet established official ties with the other campuses, but Musharbash said he believes students there will be as interested in supporting the NTSC as UTD’s students have been.“(After emailing UTD students about the NTSC) we were taken aback by the response we got,” Musharbash said. “People want to make a substantial difference in state politics. They are attracted (to NTSC) because we are doing something substantial for students.” NTSC members devote
several hours each week to ensure their campaign is successful.
Previc likened his work for the campaign as co- founder, co-director and event coordinator to a part- time job. Musharbash, on the other hand, said he is able to balance his NTSC commitments with his schoolwork by sleeping zero to five hours each day.
Both students, however, along with Chris McAlister, history senior and legislative affairs chair for the NTSC, say the campaign is worth the struggle. “This organization is extremely important to me,” McAlister said. “There are real people with real stories who want to get an education. It’s sad to me that so many of them will not be able to (afford one).”
McAlister said that in addition to working 20 hours a week as a security guard and taking a full load of courses at UTD, he spends several hours each week conducting research for the NTSC.
With help from Texas think tanks and professors, he is working on a blueprint to show state representatives how to avoid cutting higher education in 2013, without increasing taxes.
McAlister said if cutting higher education is essential, the blueprint will show the representatives how to cut it the right way — reduce real inefficiencies, such as bloated administrative salaries, and keep essential programs, such as financial aid. “We want to get all the research right,” he said. “(We need to) reach a permanent and long lasting solution to higher education instead of just jumping into the rhetoric.”
With its 15 current members and only two years to achieve its goals, Previc said the NTSC is “crazy ambitious” if it wishes to influence the Texas government to not cut higher education.
But Previc, Musharbash and McAlister are all confident that their hard work will make a difference.
“Our group’s voice will be heard and real changes will be made,” McAlister said. “The U.S. used to be at the forefront (of the world) but now it’s lagging behind. The more it does, the more people will realize that . . . higher education is the way of the future.”
