On behalf of the 42,000 students of The University of Arizona we would like to congratulate you on your swearing-in as the 23rd Governor of our great state!
As student leaders in Tucson, we can tell you that we have been seriously concerned about harmful cuts to public investment in our institutions of higher education. As the legislative session begins, we appreciate the challenging position that you and our legislators face in keeping Arizona’s financial house in the black and we understand that the cuts that have been suggested were not made without thorough thought and consideration.
We, the students at University of Arizona, like most of Arizona’s citizens, know that these are not simple economic times we face as a state and nation and as President Ann Weaver Hart has said, “All Arizonans will need to have serious discussions about what the long-term structural solutions look like.”
Over the last ten years, our state has seen public investment in our universities decline while tuition rates and fee rates have more than doubled. As students who chose The University of Arizona for its superior qualities in academics, research and career marketability, we are uneasy with recent statements we have heard from members of our legislature who have indicated that additional cuts to higher education may be on the table.
For this reason, we deeply hope going forward, that you will hold strong on your proposed budget against any further cuts that the legislature is likely to consider. We fear what deeper cuts could mean, specifically, the continuation of rapidly rising tuition and mandatory fee rates that shoot the cost of attaining a degree through the roof. Such increases will make it harder for our university to attract high caliber students from both Arizona and elsewhere, and plunge students and their families into more debt. This has already led Arizonans to delay starting a family, buying a home, starting a business, and confidently spending money in Arizona. We can assure you that no one feels these cuts to higher education more than the 42,000 students and their families. More importantly, these additional cuts would slow the process of our young and bright future doctors, lawyers, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs adding value to Arizona’s communities and economy.
Arizona citizens have expressed time and again that they believe further tuition increases to our public universities to be unnecessary and burdensome. Our state’s employers know that the key to a trained workforce and a competitive economy comes from a university education. If we are to grow Arizona’s economy we have to do so without cutting into the muscle that makes our state strong.
We thank you for your willingness to serve our state in such troubled times. We trust in your experience and leadership and offer our help and support in any way that we can lend it.
19 Comments
As a continuing graduate student I have faced more than my fair share of economic hardship in search of education. Cutting education is profoundly anti-intellectual. Public universities were designed so that a common citizen could receive an education for a fair price. This benefits the state and the country as a whole. Efforts to defund the higher education (and indeed all education) system will result in a less educated public. This also defeats the purpose of public education in the first place.
By not investing in human captial Arizona will experience a harship in finding an educated workforce.
Education benefits all. Prisons do not. Please allocate state funding to the appropriate sectors!
Cutting funding for higher education to obtain some short-term political posturing is not only reckless, it is unconscionable.
Your proposal to cut funding to universities and add funding for prisons speaks volumes and I find it both disgraceful and disheartening.
Please don't dumb down our state!
Stop expanding the prison system and keep funding higher education!
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On behalf of the 42,000 students of The University of Arizona we would like to congratulate you on your swearing-in as the 23rd Governor of our great state!
As student leaders in Tucson, we can tell you that we have been seriously concerned about harmful cuts to public investment in our institutions of higher education. As the legislative session begins, we appreciate the challenging position that you and our legislators face in keeping Arizona’s financial house in the black and we understand that the cuts that have been suggested were not made without thorough thought and consideration.
We, the students at University of Arizona, like most of Arizona’s citizens, know that these are not simple economic times we face as a state and nation and as President Ann Weaver Hart has said, “All Arizonans will need to have serious discussions about what the long-term structural solutions look like.”
Over the last ten years, our state has seen public investment in our universities decline while tuition rates and fee rates have more than doubled. As students who chose The University of Arizona for its superior qualities in academics, research and career marketability, we are uneasy with recent statements we have heard from members of our legislature who have indicated that additional cuts to higher education may be on the table.
For this reason, we deeply hope going forward, that you will hold strong on your proposed budget against any further cuts that the legislature is likely to consider. We fear what deeper cuts could mean, specifically, the continuation of rapidly rising tuition and mandatory fee rates that shoot the cost of attaining a degree through the roof. Such increases will make it harder for our university to attract high caliber students from both Arizona and elsewhere, and plunge students and their families into more debt. This has already led Arizonans to delay starting a family, buying a home, starting a business, and confidently spending money in Arizona. We can assure you that no one feels these cuts to higher education more than the 42,000 students and their families. More importantly, these additional cuts would slow the process of our young and bright future doctors, lawyers, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs adding value to Arizona’s communities and economy.
Arizona citizens have expressed time and again that they believe further tuition increases to our public universities to be unnecessary and burdensome. Our state’s employers know that the key to a trained workforce and a competitive economy comes from a university education. If we are to grow Arizona’s economy we have to do so without cutting into the muscle that makes our state strong.
We thank you for your willingness to serve our state in such troubled times. We trust in your experience and leadership and offer our help and support in any way that we can lend it.
19 Comments
I can appreciate the candor of this email; we are a respectable student body. However, I side with Landon Yarrington's comments, in that we need to be more direct with the effects such a decision would entail. Perhaps we need to state some specific "long-term structural impacts" especially as they would effect our institution and the opportunities afforded to the constituents of Arizona, and especially make higher education even more so unattainable for graduating high school seniors of already vulnerable populations. In addition, to make it difficult to maintain enrollment, while placing current students at risk for even lesser financial support which can impact retention and successful college graduation rates. This effects us all in both proximal and distal time.
As a continuing graduate student I have faced more than my fair share of economic hardship in search of education. Cutting education is profoundly anti-intellectual. Public universities were designed so that a common citizen could receive an education for a fair price. This benefits the state and the country as a whole. Efforts to defund the higher education (and indeed all education) system will result in a less educated public. This also defeats the purpose of public education in the first place.
By not investing in human captial Arizona will experience a harship in finding an educated workforce.
Education benefits all. Prisons do not. Please allocate state funding to the appropriate sectors!
Cutting funding for higher education to obtain some short-term political posturing is not only reckless, it is unconscionable.
Your proposal to cut funding to universities and add funding for prisons speaks volumes and I find it both disgraceful and disheartening.
Please don't dumb down our state!
Stop expanding the prison system and keep funding higher education!
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I can appreciate the candor of this email; we are a respectable student body. However, I side with Landon Yarrington's comments, in that we need to be more direct with the effects such a decision would entail. Perhaps we need to state some specific "long-term structural impacts" especially as they would effect our institution and the opportunities afforded to the constituents of Arizona, and especially make higher education even more so unattainable for graduating high school seniors of already vulnerable populations. In addition, to make it difficult to maintain enrollment, while placing current students at risk for even lesser financial support which can impact retention and successful college graduation rates. This effects us all in both proximal and distal time.