OU students met with Gov. Kevin Stitt and other state legislators at the Oklahoma state Capitol on Tuesday to lobby for higher education funding.
Higher Education Day is an initiative for students from Oklahoma universities to meet with legislators to share their college experiences and lobby for causes important to them.
OU Student Government Association’s main goal this year was to increase higher education funding and address the increasing cost of tuition for college students, Weslie Griffin, Student Government Association External Affairs Committee chair, said.
“Our conversations were centered around how can we make sure that this funding coming from the state is going to the proper places so that universities aren't overcharging students,” Griffin said.
Griffin explained that the conversations were productive and legislators were understanding of students’ perspectives.
“Most legislators come in with a very open mind. They want to hear from students even if they're not necessarily their constituents. … A lot of them invited us to come back, invited us to come speak, things like that, so I think (the conversations) were really constructive,” Griffin said.
SGA’s External Affairs committee began preparations around winter break, contacting legislature members to schedule meeting times. SGA then reached out to students who were interested in attending.
SGA sent 31 students to the Capitol this year to meet with over 40 legislators. Griffin credited his fellow SGA members and the students who signed up for helping the day run smoothly.
“It was such a complicated day that had so much potential for disaster, but everyone really pitched in and did their part,” Griffin said. “We made a lot of great connections with legislators and we got a bunch of really great points across and made some connections that I think are gonna last for a long time.”
Michael Stoyak, Student Government Association External Affairs Committee secretary, said that Higher Education Day fosters an essential connection between students and their legislators.
“We go into these meetings and talk to them about our experiences. … Students can share their unique perspectives and journeys to higher education, and why it is so important to allocate extra funding to that,” Stoyak said.
Aside from allowing students to lobby for causes, Higher Education Day also introduced civic engagement to students who may not have priorly been familiar, Griffin said.
“Not many people get the chance to just pop up and go to a meeting with a bunch of representatives on the same day. … This is a really good way to get introduced into lobbying and get introduced into civic engagement,” Griffin said.
Griffin said over half of the students who came had never been to Higher Education Day before and some had never even visited the capital. He hopes this will continue to encourage more students to participate in events like this and become more connected to their state legislature.
For Stoyak and Griffin, Higher Education Day at its core allows students to get involved in their local communities.
“Civic engagement is one of the pillars of leadership that OU really holds essential to its own identity,” Griffin said. “It's really important for us to get students not (only) involved just on campus, but (also) get them involved in the communities around them.”
This story was edited by Karoline Leonard and Alexia Aston. Teegan Smith, Alexandra Powell-Lorentzatos and Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.
