By Tommy Cha
WWU Lobby Day
Many students at Western had a nice three-day weekend for Presidents’ Day, and got to relax. However, there were a few students who dedicated their time in which they could have taken a break from academics, but did not.
Instead, these students went down to Olympia as three different groups to lobby. These groups were affiliated with the DOC (Disability Outreach Center), the ESC (Ethnic Student Center), and the ESP (Environmental and Sustainability Programs). Over 50 students participated in Lobby Day at the Capitol.
DOC (Disability Outreach Center)
The DOC group lobbied for three topics. These topics were “Improved Funding for Accessibility and Disability Services at Public Colleges and Universities,” “Employment Equity for People with Disabilities,” and “The Model Toxins Control Act”.
The Improved Funding for Accessibility is aimed towards funding for the costs of accessibility devices, such as elevators and buttons used for opening doors. The problem with this is that upkeep is required for these devices, as over the years, the features become more outdated and come with problems. With that, the upkeep and replacements for these may go beyond the school’s budget. The Employment Equity for People with Disabilities topic is to oppose and change an existing law that allows employers to pay people with disabilities below minimum wage.
ESC (Ethnic Student Center)
The ESC went to go lobby for Support for Undocumented Immigrants, Support for Survivors of Sexual Assault, Additional Revenue, Enhancing Student Success for Marginalized Students, and Ethnic Studies through K-12.
The Support for Undocumented Immigrants is to provide resources for undocumented students in higher education across Washington State.
Among the points: making it illegal for ICE to collaborate with any state-funded agency., and pushing for undocumented students’ rights to work on campus no matter what DACA status they had. The students who went to Olympia to represent the Ethnic Student Center also lobbied to pass House Bill 1294, which it develops a model ethnic studies curriculum for grades 7 to 12. The reason for this is because the Associated Students strongly believes that the Washington State public school system must represent historically-marginalized communities in the United States.
Justin Kogge, who participated in the ESC Lobby Day, told me, “about 45 percent of students from Kindergarten to Seniors in high school are students of color, whereas 89 percent of K-12 teachers are white.” With this, he added, “there are students of color whose role models are white.”
Because there are a lot of white teachers and less people of color teaching, many underrepresented and students of color do not experience much with their histories. On top of that, there is research evidence that all students benefit from a well-taught and well-designed Ethnic Studies program.
Later, I talked with another student who went down to lobby for the ESC: AS VP for Diversity Erick Yanzon. I asked them about their experience with lobbying.
Erick told me that it was good, and it was their third time lobbying with Western.
“This is my first time going with the ESC, and I enjoyed it more because I was with my community. It was good to see because our communities aren’t as active in terms of Political Engagement.”
As a student of color here at Western, I have noticed that this is true; not even my own community gets as involved as others I have seen throughout my experiences.
ESP (Environmental and Sustainability Programs)
The ESP lobbied for three topics: Carbon Taxation, the Model Toxics Control Act, and Public Health and Environmental Justice.
Voting YES on Bill 5509 will promote a tax on carbon emissions. As stated in the ESP’s agenda, “the department of revenue is to take revenues from this tax to help lower income individuals and workers who are negatively impacted by the energy transition to lower emissions.”
With that in mind, this tax does not implement in places where a lot of people live near the poverty line. This is to promote people to create a healthier place for the environment.
The Students in part of the ESP also lobbied for “Public Health and Environmental Justice: House Bill 1171”. This is to vote YES on Bill 1171, which would create a more safe and friendly environment. Bill 1171 deals with UMPs (ultrafine particulate emissions), which is often associated with aircraft in areas where an airport is operating. Because of this, people around these places are associated with heart and lung conditions, asthma, and other health issues.
I talked to Katie Winkelman, the AS Environmental & Sustainability Programs Director. Though she did not go down to lobby, but Katie was part of the planning for it.
I asked her how it was like to set up or prepare for the event. She told me that the ESP does not really have an “agenda, but students are the ones to voice their opinions.”
With the students’ opinions and voices being heard, the ESP builds around that. Katie also told me that it took about 3 to 4 months of planning for this Lobby Day. This goes to show that the students involved with Lobby Days at Western are very hard-working and dedicated in what they do.
If you feel like you have missed a few information about Lobby Day and would like to know more about it, you can contact the AS Disability Outreach Center, Ethnic Student Center, and the Environmental and Sustainability Programs. They can guide you on the issues going on, and what they were all lobbying for.