Five Macalester students joined students, staff and faculty from many of Minnesota’s 17 private colleges at the Capitol to lobby for the Minnesota State Grant Program on Thursday, Feb. 21.

The State Grant Program provides college funding for low- and middle-income students, allowing them to choose any public or private school in the state. At Macalester, 179 students receive assistance for a total of $641,135 in grant money.

“In my experience this is the most aggressive state grant program I’ve seen,” said Macalester’s Director of Financial Aid Brian Lindeman. “A lot of states have moved toward a merit based award, but this only goes to the neediest.”

If the funding is cut, Macalester might have to give up its need-blind admissions policy, Lindeman said.

“The grant is very important to a lot of people who wouldn’t be going to school otherwise,” said Jimica Dawkins ’03, a St. Paul resident and one of the Macalester grant recipients who attended the event at the Capitol.

Dawkins, whose sister and mother are also in college, said she would not have been able to afford a private school without the grant. “I didn’t want to go to a huge state school where you’re just anonymous,” she said.

The day began with speeches by Gov. Jesse Ventura, Sens. John Hottinger and Deanna Wiener, and Rep. Steve Sviggum, Speaker of the House, before the students were divided into groups to meet personally with senators and representatives. The legislators were scheduled to vote that afternoon on a budget proposal they planned to push through against the Governor’s will, and the conflict between the legislators and the governor influenced the discourse during the day. (See World News Roundup on page 4 for a description of the budget conflict.)

Ventura had proposed a 2.5 percent increase in spending on private colleges, but the budget proposal put forward by the House and Senate maintained last year’s spending.

“Their principles must be quite different from mine,” Gov. Jesse Ventura said about the senators and representatives. “I believe in higher education.”

“The economic downturn has forced us to rethink principles,” Ventura said. “While it was necessary to cut funding to institutions, we put our faith in the individual and proposed increases to financial aid. Why not have the institutions compete for you instead of you competing with the institutions? When they do that, they get better,” Ventura said.

Many students found that their appointments with the legislators had been cancelled because of the budget debate. Others were unable to find the representatives they were scheduled to meet with in the crowd outside the House. However, all students were able to meet with at least one legislator, said MCSG president, Nick Berning.

“It’s not like we’re going to go there and suddenly some representative or senator is going to have a revelation and vote differently,” Berning said. “But the reason the program is still funded is that Minnesota students have done this before. Very few people actually track down to the capitol to tell the legislators what they think, so it gives us a lot of power when we do show up.”

President Michael McPherson agreed. “State Grant funding is of considerable importance to Macalester,” McPherson said. “Legislators need to know that students care and that they value the support they receive from this program. I’m quite sure that the public support from the students has a big impact on the legislators. There’s no more visible way to show you care than to suit up and show up.”

Senator Richard Cohen, representative of District 64, which includes Macalester, expressed his support for the state grant program when he received a group of students in his office. “I don’t think I’ve ever noticed any political or ideological concerns with the program,” he said. “It’s pretty well accepted. It’s just a question about how much money there is, but I realize that tuition fees nowadays are amazing.”

Cohen seemed overwhelmed when Macalester students told him that next year’s tuition, including room and board, will exceed $30,000. “Boy, Mac has come to $30,000,” he said. “You better get a good education.”

Cohen admitted he saw some weaknesses in the proposed budget, “particularly the cuts to human services,” but he was eager to get it passed, if for no other reason than to put Gov. Ventura in a bad light. “I hope he vetoes it so we can just shove it down his throat,” he said. “He is the most rightwing politician I’ve ever met in this state, and he couples that with being truly a jerk. He’s rude, he’s nasty and he’s the least engaged person I’ve ever seen around this place.”

Cohen also said he was impressed with the commitment the students showed to their schools by showing up at the capitol. “Any kind of constituency contact makes a difference,” he said. “It puts a face on the statistics and it really underscores that this is a serious issue to the students.”

The Student Lobby Day was organized for the second year in a row by the Minnesota Private College Counsel. About 150 students, staff-and faculty members from colleges around Minnestoa participated in the event according to the counsel’s director of government and community relations, Mike Wilhelmi.