Higher Education, Higher Priority

Recently, funding for higher education has not been the highest priority in Michigan's budget appropriations, which has taken on a toll on its public universities. For this reason, ASMSU, Michigan State University's student government, has organized a rally Friday (today), titled "Higher Education, Higher Priority," to protest the cuts that are causing tuition rates to rise and undergraduate programs to be eliminated.

The rally does not "seek to change the past," but rather, to emphasize what students are looking for in the future, according to an article published in the State News written by ASMSU's president Chris Schotten.

Well, duh. Unless ASMSU has a time machine, we're not going to be able to go back and rewrite the 2011 fiscal year budget report. Even if they did, though, I'm not sure a rally would initiate any change. Earth to our student government -- rallies rarely work, especially when they're on a Friday, hardly advertised and meant to consist of 19-24-year-olds. Voting works. Full-scale revolution works (sometimes, and I'm not advocating it, just being dramatic). But rally's -- they're complicated. I'm interested to see how many people show up.

Anyways, speakers at the rally will include State Representative Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, State Representative Joan Bauer, D-Lansing, and Brenda Lawrence, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, to name a few.

What should be especially interesting is what Joan Bauer will have to say, considering she chairs the Higher Education Appropriations Committee. I'm not sure how you can find common ground with people in front of you protesting your very own decisions, but hey, most politicians are good at talking around things anyways.

Well, I'm off to Lansing.

Stay tuned for a review of the rally afterwards!