Students have remained notably quiet in the budget debate raging at the Capitol. Perhaps that is why it seemed acceptable to Gov. Jim Doyle and UW-Madison administrators when they solicited a group of students critically dependent on state-funded Wisconsin Higher Education Grants to participate in a press conference.
The press conference, though billed as a state budget “discussion,” is obviously aimed to endorse the Governor’s version of the budget. This, of course, prompted Republicans to spout venomous accusations of conspiracy, violation of privacy and exploitation of partisan pawns.
Neither side is fully in the right. While the Doyle-UW camp did not violate students’ privacy—no names have been released and the e-mail emphatically informed students of their right to deny the invite—they did position students as political pawns. These students likely do support Doyle’s version of the budget given their financial need, but if they stand behind the governor’s podium they lose legitimacy as ambassadors to the UW-Madison student body.
It is both natural and expected that the Republicans pounced on the issue and framed it as a scandalous affair, undermining the goal of Doyle and the university to humanize the implications of the budget impasse. Adding hyperbole to injury, state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, issued a press release prophesizing, “There will be an odor in the room at the press conference—it will be the stench of hypocrisy coming from Gov. Doyle and his support for
uncontrolled spending in the UW System.”
While Doyle and the university scrambled to defend their actions and Nass sniffed around for misconduct, the debacle smothered the student voice. Yet, this infighting gives students—particularly those reliant upon WHEG grants—an opportunity to rise up and show state leaders just how leadership and diplomacy work.
Students must speak out about the budget and they must do so now. Those with WHEG grants on the line have the most to gain by declining attendance at the press conference and launching an independent student movement for a budget that meets the UW System’s needs. The best budget, albeit one that still needs adjustment, is the state Senate version of the budget.
These students must assert their independence from the partisan figureheads, network with one another and act as diplomats on behalf of the thousands of students reliant on state funding. It may seem unfair to put the onus for action on these students, but their situation is most dire and thus most likely to incite fast action among budgetarily impotent lawmakers.
