Feb. 26, the California State University Chancellor, CSU trustees, campus presidents and CSU leaders met in Washington D.C. for CSU Hill day to advocate at the federal level.
Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) President Mariam Salameh, President John F. Sheley, Associate Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs Tim Lynch and ASI Board of Director of Diversity Bella Orcajo were in attendance representing CSU Stanislaus.
CSU Hill Day brings many universities from the CSU level to the nation’s capital to advocate the main priorities they feel are important for the CSU System.
“Some of the things we covered during our advocacy visit with President Sheley and Mr. Lynch was the increase of Pell Grant funding for our campus,” Salameh said.
“Our population, 85 percent of our students depend on some form of financial aid, but for Pell grants only 60 percent rely on it. We made sure to push for that and get more support to increase Pell grants for our students.”
The group met with policymakers to touch on the CSU system priorities for 2015. This ranged from improving college access through financial aid for students, preparing students for college, fostering degree completion for California’s Diverse population, educating students for tomorrow’s workforce, solving societal problems through research, enhancing campus in infrastructure, health and safety and promoting state and private support for public universities.
“Another thing we advocated for was for Veteran’s Affairs and first generation programs,” Salameh said. “Most of our student population is first generation so we wanted to make sure we advocated for program that would help them and give them a foundation throughout their college. We focused on TRIO, which is a student support services on campus and PACE, which is another program and STEM that is geared towards the math and science area.”
While at Capitol Hill, they were also able to meet up with Congressman Jeff Denham and Congressman Jeff McNerney to discuss contingency issues regarding regional development and AB540 undocumented students and how the university is supporting Dreamers.
“Going on this federal advocacy with President Sheley and Mr. lynch was a really great experience to make sure the congress members know the impact that we have within the region and our student needs and what we need as a whole, as a system,” Salameh said. “So I think federal advocacy is very important.”