Campus groups work to promote education in state government

State funding and tuition costs are two issues lobbyist groups on campus want members of the UA community to keep in mind when they go to the polls Tuesday.

The AdvoCATS and Arizona Students' Association are devoted to informing UA students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community on state legislative issues that will affect UA. With elections approaching, they want to let the public know about which candidates will support higher education.

ASA is a student-run lobbyist group that works at all Arizona universities to encourage student voting.

Neither AdvoCATS nor ASA can endorse specific candidates, but both want UA community members to be able to make an informed decision on who will help the university when they get into office.

"I can't name names, but we are looking for candidates that support higher education and that are somewhat open-minded," said Charlene Ledet, director for the Legislative Advocacy Program and AdvoCATS promoter. "There are some candidates that think there is plenty of room for cuts · Those are not the candidates that we think are going to help the university."

When the candidates take office, the AdvoCATS' work really begins. They keep in constant contact with the legislatures about issues that may affect UA and try to persuade them to make decisions that benefit the school.

"If they are talking about deeper cuts, that is when we have to use all our persuasive power to let them know we want the cuts to be as small as possible," Ledet said.

While it is too late to register for Tuesday's primaries, Jenny Rimsza, ASA task force manager, said her group hopes to register 2000 students before the general elections on Nov. 5. Starting next week, the group will have a registration booth on the UA Mall every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for several weeks.

"I think it's so important that people are involved and aware of what's going on around them as far as government," said Rimsza, a business and economics junior. "We're trying to get the word out that (the students') vote counts and can change an election, because who we elect does really affect so many issues at UA."

Rimsza added that out of state students are also encouraged to register, because they will be in Tucson for all elections and the decisions made by the legislature will affect them at UA.

Both Ledet and Rimsza stressed the importance of voting this year when the budget is such a principal issue.

"The ultimate goal is to encourage the legislature to vote in such a way that it helps the university in both budget and policy issues," Ledet said. "The Legislature controls a third of our budget and they can set state policy that affect us, too."

The AdvoCATS have held forums devoted to the discussion of higher education and will soon have these on their Web site at http://uagrad.org/advocats/home.php.