Students advocate funding request

Student representatives from the University of Minnesota met yesterday with local legislators at the State Capitol in St. Paul to lobby for University project funding.
“Support the U Day” is an annual event hosted by the Minnesota Student Association, whose members made up the majority of attendees. In one meeting, Rep. Phyllis Kahn and Sen. Larry Pogemiller, both DFLers representing the University area, sat down with students who advocated for the projects proposed in the University’s 2010 capital request.
“We know the significant impact young people have — especially students,” said MSA Legislative Affairs Chairman Paul Buchel. “We’re not bogged down by cynicism.”
Proposed biennially, the capital request details projects for which the University wants funding. The top priority in the capital request is for $100 million in funding for systemwide upgrades and repairs on existing buildings.
Folwell Hall renovations, which were line-item vetoed in the state bonding bill in 2008, are the highest priority for specific projects, said MSA President Paul Strain. The University is asking for $34.5 million to improve classroom heating, air conditioning and technology.
Global studies junior Jermaine Elliott attended “Support the U Day” to advocate Folwell renovations. He had his first class in the building this year and said he thinks the disparities between the facility and, for example, facilities for the Carlson School of Management are unfair.
“Experiencing the lack of resources in [Folwell Hall] is unfortunate,” Elliott said.
In the meeting with Kahn and Pogemiller, the group of about 15 students chatted with lawmakers in a board room at the Capitol and was persistent in making their requests clear.
Strain stressed Folwell Hall’s historical significance and indisputable old age.
“It’s a difficult building for education, but it’s a beautiful building,” he said.
Both Khan and Pogemiller voiced support for most projects students mentioned.
“Folwell was old when I was there. We thought it was a dump then,” Pogemiller said.
Pogemiller said he was interested in student input and asked the student representatives what they saw as the school’s best merits.
Students’ replies varied, from the University’s modernization to its location, but all related back to the bonding requests in some way.
One trend among students at the meeting was complaints of high tuition, which Kahn attributes to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s resistance to raising taxes.
“The problem, really, is in the governor’s office,” she said. “Until we get some [tax] money coming in, we’ll just totally end up with cuts in the budget.”
In a presentation for attendees before the trip to the Capitol, Dana Bacon of the University’s Federal Relations team briefed students on the benefits of the request. The presentation is new for this year’s “U Day,” and Strain said it helped the event to go more smoothly.
Bacon explained the bill is basically for borrowing money or bonds for construction projects.
The Senate’s bonding bill, which was passed through the chamber Tuesday, is more favorable to the University.
Allocating $111.3 million to the University’s projects gives more money for HEAPR and Folwell Hall, as well as seed money for a new physics and nanotechnology building the University wants $80 million for.
The House bill, less favorable to the University by about $35 million, was approved by a committee Tuesday afternoon but may not be voted on by the whole body for some time, Bacon said.