Students Make Scene at JFC
The first real drama of the budget occurred today when a group of UW students, holding a banner reading "Cut Tuition, Not the Budget" took the floor shortly before today's meeting was called to order at 3:50 p.m.
The students stood in front of the Joint Finance Committee and confronted them on their lack of action on the UW System budget, which has been on the calendar several times but always put off due to disagreement among Republican committee members on how to handle it. "We've come here three days waiting for the committee to discuss the university budget," said the spokesman for the group while three other young men held the banner, which pages quickly took away. He said he had tried to meet with the committee members individually to discuss his concerns but had been denied.
"Are you going to be cutting university budget?" the student asked. "Why won't any of you stand up for education. Do any of you all care?"
The group was escorted from the hearing room by a Capitol police officer. The vocal student continued to berate the committee as he left. "You know they don't care about any of y'all," he said.
"We know, we know," answered one lobbyist.
After they left, committee co-chairs Rep. Dean Kaufert and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said it would be unlikely the committee would get to the UW System budget today.
