Photo Courtesy of AS Communications
By Sydnee Smith
On Jan. 20 and 21 in Olympia, Wash. approximately 90 Western students, which included students from the Associated Students communications office and facilitators, lobbied for seven items on the Western Lobby Day agenda.
Nicole Ballard, AS voting organizing and outreach coordinator, said most legislators were really receptive to students, even if they didn’t support all aspects of the agenda. Those lobbying were able to have a healthy conversation about why they found importance in those agenda items.
“Overall, I think that we were able to let our government know what Western is passionate about and I hope we can change policies in Washington state to push for a more diverse, supportive, and educated state,” Ballard said.
The priority of the agenda was access to STEM for all students. Natasha Hessami, AS VP for governmental affairs, said four to five years ago Western started to draft up a proposal for wider access for STEM. This year, Governor Jay Inslee allocated $60 million in his budget to Western to build a new science building. She said it would be extra impactful down in Olympia if Western also had students lobbying for it.
The other six items on the agenda pertain to a lot of other universities as well and appear on other college’s lobbying agendas. Those include environmental protection, an improved state-need grant, support for undocumented students, support for survivors of sexual assault, K-12 education reform, which includes more comprehensive sex education, and dedicated revenue to higher education.
The seven items on the agenda were decided during fall quarter and were developed by the Legislative Affairs Council, a committee that consists of 15 students-at-large and AS employees. The agenda is made using AS board items, student surveys and discussions with LAC.
AS Board Assistant for Internal Committees Nate Jo also attended lobby day and said many of his meetings were high stakes, as some legislators didn’t agree with all the agenda items such as K-12 comprehensive sex education and environmental protections. However, he said many seemed in favor of the STEM extension plan.
Hessami mostly wants students to understand the importance of participating in student lobby days and local governmental affairs within their colleges.
“You are a constituent of Washington because you go to Western Washington University, you reap the benefits of this state,” Hessami said. “Going down and lobbying is the best way to directly influence state processes.”
Hessami also noted because Western is a public school, meaning half of the funding comes from legislators, and lobbying directly impacts their decisions. Funding for things like faculty and staff salaries, paying for new buildings and paying for new technology are allocations that come from the state.
“You will have a better university experience, you’ll have more resources available to you if the state allocates more money, and the best way to convince them to do so is to actually go down there [to Olympia] and tell them why we need more allocations,” Hessami said.
Hessami mentioned that a key player in Western’s lobbying efforts is Henry Pollet, the AS legislative liaison, who will be in Olympia all quarter. During this time, Pollet will attend meetings, committees and testify directly on behalf of Western student’s needs.