Budget talks with the Legislature are about to begin, and student lobbyists are jumping on Gov. Janet Napolitano's bandwagon, urging legislators to support her budget request.

The Arizona Students' Association, a statewide student-run lobbying group, has begun pressing legislators with a letter-writing campaign to support the Arizona Board of Regents' financial aid trust fund and Napolitano's plan to increase university funding.

Amy Hicks, ASA associate executive director, said over the past three years, the Legislature has cut funding for universities and is not looking to increase it next year.

"The governor has proposed a budget increasing funding by 6.1 percent," Hicks said. "This will be $45.9 million more than what we saw last year."

The financial aid trust fund was established in the late 1980s and matches the $35 fee students pay to the regents.

The fee is 1 percent of in-state tuition, and legislators have failed to match the universities' contributions for the past three years.

Last year, the state's universities collected $2.9 million in fees but only received $2.2 million in state appropriations.

The UA would receive $8 million more than the $440 million it received last year, along with a share of $21.9 million in pay raises for all university employees.

In the past three years, the state Legislature has cut more than $200 million from the three state universities, and has decreased financial aid contributions by $700,000.

Napolitano said the funding is vital to keep valuable research professors from leaving for other schools, where they stand to make substantially more money.

"As you are building Arizona, and trying to get from one place to the next, the universities are the place to invest," Napolitano said in her State of the State address.

The UA has felt the effects of losing professors to universities that can pay higher salaries in the ongoing brain-drain epidemic.

Last year, the university lost chemistry professors Seth Marder, Joseph Perry and Jean-Luc Bred‡s, and optical sciences associate professor Bernard Kippelen.

Now ASA is turning up the heat on legislators to support the governor's university-friendly budget.

"A quality education does not come cheap, but if the state is not willing to invest into the future leaders and educators, opportunities will continue to pass us by, " said Maceo Brown, ASA executive director.

Student lobbyists from the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University passed a resolution to support Napolitano's budget, said Alexis Coury, ASA director.

"The money will go towards restoration in terms of budget, class programs and faculty retention," Coury said.

Hicks said the additional funding is important for the universities.

"If universities are going to continue to grow, they need to increase funding," Hicks said.

ASA is calling on students, faculty and community members to get involved by sending letters to legislators, calling for their support. A letter and e-mail Web alert can be found on the organization's Web site at azstudents.org.

The letter-writing campaign was started to get students involved and supportive of the budget, Hicks said.

"We're hoping that legislators will fully fund financial aid to make up for the $700,000 lost," she said.

Marco Bravo, a Latin American studies graduate student, said the budget proposal could do everyone a lot of good. "I think a lot of students need financial aid, especially if they are out of state," Bravo said.

ASA encourages students to make a difference and contact their Legislature in support of the proposal, Coury said.

"We're optimistic at this point," she said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the number gets hammered down a little, but we would like it to stay relatively the same."

- Bob Purvis contributed to this report.