The Daily Gamecock

Student Government honors legislators for supporting higher education

USC and Clemson student governments hope to start a new period of more student involvement in state government, beginning with their Wednesday release of the Student Higher Education Report and Honor Roll. The report, an original part of Parks’ platform, includes voting records on higher education bills in the past two years and honors legislators who consistently supported higher education.

The report was created “to give students some skin in the game,” said USC Student Body President Michael Parks.

While the honor roll was proposed by USC, Clemson’s Student Government was eager to get involved. Both universities had teams that collaborated on the project.

“We have to... work together to have an impact on the state,” said Clemson Student Body President Joey Wilson.

Even though Clemson University and the University of South Carolina system together include almost 70,000 potential voters, there’s “no really tangible student voice” at the state capital, Parks said.

Giving that voice was Secretary of Government Relations Natalie Pita, who led the USC team working on the report.

“The legislators can’t pass bills that students like and they don’t know the opinions of students if we don’t tell them,” Pita said.

Beginning in August, Pita’s team went through all of the legislation from the 2015-2016 session and assigned point values to each bill based on its impact on higher education. Bills such as the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act and university budgets were given five points, while bills that had a limited impact were worth fewer points. Legislators made the honor roll if they got 90 percent or more of available points — an A grade. The project was inspired by a similar effort last year by LSU.

“There’s no higher education report card in South Carolina, so we thought it was something that was really important to start,” Pita said.

About two-thirds of state senators made the honor roll, while only about half of state representatives made the cut. One senator included on the honor roll is Tom Young Jr., USC’s student body president from 1992 to 1993. As president, Young organized a statewide group of students to influence South Carolina policy position.

“It’s very important for students to engage in issue advocacy,” he said. “This is definitely a good thing.”

A major issue that Parks and Wilson want to advocate for is higher state funding. Especially since the decline in funding for higher education accompanying the 2008 recession, students have faced rising tuition costs and debt.

“We’re not just going to allow student loans and debt that can handicap the students of the state of South Carolina to go unchecked and unquestioned,” Parks said. 

With the release of the report card, Student Government aims to recognize legislators who support students’ interests, as well as holding those who didn’t make the honor roll accountable.

In the upcoming weeks, SG hopes to continue its efforts at the Statehouse with the release of an official policy platform.

“You will see students at the Statehouse like never before,” Pita said.

One policy to look for will be the proposal of a higher education bond bill — now Parks’ “No. 1 priority” for government relations. The bill would be the first in 15 years and authorize the sale of state bonds to fund higher education projects, hopefully keeping tuition increases to a minimum.

With Student Government elections approaching, Parks and Pita both said that future student governments should continue preparing the report after each upcoming legislative session.

"I hope this just starts a better relationship between students and the Statehouse," Pita said.


Comments