WITH VIDEO: Students across Michigan protest higher-ed cuts at Capitol
LANSING — Ashley Chaplain is not the first person in her family to be politically active.
“My grandmother’s 82, and she’s still protesting,” the Wixom junior said Thursday while protesting higher education budget cuts. “I voted for change, and that’s what I want.”
Chaplain was one of about 300 college students in Lansing to picket the elimination of the Michigan Promise Scholarship and budget cuts for higher education.
The Promise scholarship provided $4,000 to students attending at least a two-year institution, but was cut from the state budget this fiscal year.
Students from as far as Michigan Technological University in Houghton and as close as Michigan State University in East Lansing marched to show support for education funding.
SGA protests education cuts in Lansing from CMLifeVideo on Vimeo.
Chanting “bail us out,” and “no cuts, no fees, education should be free,” students marched down Michigan Avenue from the Lansing Center to the state Capitol, where legislators and student government leaders from around the state made speeches.
“The Senate is the first one to have the budget,” said Antonio Cosme, director of political action for student government at Eastern Michigan University. “Their budget has a 40 percent decrease in education. They burned through all the funding the federal government gave us.”
State Rep. Joan Bauer, D-Lansing, and chairwoman of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said she will work to bring funding back to higher education.
“It is time to reverse this horrible trend and invest in education,” she said.
Central Michigan University received about $2.4 million last year in stimulus money. Earlier this week, the Senate approved a 3.1 percent budget cut to public universities, which would result in a $2,584,400 reduction for CMU.
Student Government Association Vice President Brittany Mouzourakis spoke to the crowd as well. It was her first time speaking at a rally that size, she said.
“I definitely thought about that this morning,” the Garden City senior said.
Mouzourakis said she was severely affected with the elimination of the Michigan Promise. In addition, she said she was a recipient of the United Auto Workers Ford scholarship, which also was cut before school started in August.
“Their choice to rescind this scholarship, in combination with the broken Promise from the state of Michigan, has resulted in me having to look elsewhere to cover my $5,000 in scholarships,” she told the crowd.
Chaplain said although it was cold — temperatures hovered in the low 40’s — the weather did not get in the way of protesting.
“I’ll stand out here in the cold. I’ll stand out for this,” she said. “This is nothing.”
