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Wisconsin Student Government - Get Involved
From the Desk of the President -
February 18, 2011
Wisconsin Student Government Statement on Proposed Budget Repair Bill
We the elected members of Wisconsin Student Government are well aware of the difficulties that the State of Wisconsin
is facing with the projected deficit. The members of Wisconsin Student Government are sympathetic to the troubles
facing the State Legislature, as well as the State Teachers’ Unions and other unions that work in the Wisconsin Technical
College System. While we understand that fiscal responsibility needs to be a priority, we are concerned about the rights
of our faculty and staff, and above all else the overall quality of the educational services provided.
There is already a mechanism in place to limit spending by the Technical College System that has worked for over 50 years. I believe that administrators, as well as union officials want to work together in these difficult times. What is being proposed will just create animosity between the employer and the employees. The ones that will truly suffer will be the taxpayers in the classrooms.” Said President Miller. “Currently the WTCS system has only four institutions that have reached the overall mill rate allowable by state law. Out of the four, two of them have a bond rating that is above the national average.” President Miller added.
If this new proposal is put in place, I worry about the quality of our educators in the classroom. These are people that have already sacrificed a lot to be here to make sure we have the tools necessary when we get into the job market. We are already hearing of reports from instructors that have put in applications at other businesses and unfortunately other states. These are people who are fully trained on how to teach, and that is hard to come by. You may know somebody that can do a job in the field, but how well can he/she teach their experiences. Instructors also have spent years building relationships with local community businesses to make sure that what they are teaching works with the employers of the local communities and that our skill sets are up to par. They are able to adapt with the administration and the advisory committees to make sure that as the students get into the workforce prepared for their roles.
We know that there are instructors that have taken teaching jobs in which they make in some cases $40,000-$60,000, less than they would in the private sector in fields such as technology and health care. These people are quality employees and that is why they have the potential of those wage earnings in the private sector. We appreciate that they have chosen to become instructors in the classrooms to make sure that the quality of the workforce is competitive in the domestic and global economy. No matter what side of the aisle of the debate you are on, when it comes to benefits and spending, can’t we at least agree that the conversation is an important one?
We are urging the legislature of Wisconsin to allow the unions to keep working with the administrations of the WTCS in the form of collective bargaining. We ask that you allow the administration, as well as the unions, the ability to discuss the best ways to make sure the support and fiscal responsibility between both parties can be met. This would benefit in the economic recovery for the great State of Wisconsin.
For commenting the above post please contact President Sarah Miller.
January 17, 2011
Hello,
First off, I would like to thank everyone for a great November meeting. We moved forward with our involvement with W.A.C.T.E and made some decisions with our budget to create professional transition materials, both of these will help us in the short term and build a foundation for the future.
In regards to our workshop on the Joint Finance Committee the handout passed along to you with information on the JFC and the election results for each district are posted on the WSG website under "Current Issues" and "Resources".
I would encourage you as Governors and Lt. Governors with your student senates to put on the very same workshop outlining the Who, What, and Whys of the Joint Finance Committee for the students of your school and then encouraging them to practice testifying in front of the JFC similar to the meeting. Encourage your students, get them passionate and motivated to become part of something bigger than themselves. In short, you are trying to start a fire.
A few suggestions for going about this,
-Use a captive audience, ask your advisors for the opportunity to present in front of clubs in your school.
-Emphasize why the Joint Finance Committee is important and how the state budget will directly affect them as technical college students.
-Engage your audience! Feel free to modify the workshop to capture the attention of the students you are presenting for.
As you may have heard on the last day of our Legislative seminar February 22nd there will be a number of events occurring in the rotunda to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wisconsin Technical College System. This will include student showcases from all 16 colleges from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as well as a re-enactment of the signing of the 1911 legislation that that started the WTCS and speakers at 12:30 p.m.. Paul Gabriel, executive director of the District Boards has asked that we, the students of the WTCS, attend the commemorative signing portion at 12:30 p.m. to build support in the capital at a time when the more positive attention the technical college system receives the better.
Thank you for your dedication to the technical college students at your campus and in the state of Wisconsin. I look forward to seeing you all soon, hope your holiday is well.
-Eric
July 14, 2010
Hello All,
The Department of public instruction will hold on open hearing on July 30th about a proposed rule that would require a bachelors degree to be gainfully employed as a school nurse. Some of you may remember Conor Smyth and Paul Gabriel speaking of this proposed administrative rule in a breakout session at the February Legislative seminar. This rule is nothing more than flagrant discrimination against those holding nursing degree's from technical and community colleges, eligibility for school nurse should be based on competency, training, and experience.
The Wisconsin Student Government will be attending the meeting to voice our support of the word "bachelors" being removed from the language. I am asking those of you whom are able to attend to join me in voicing our support on July 30th at 1:00 in Madison. Attached (click here) is a document from the District Boards Association with more details, please pass this along throughout your school and community.
Written comments can also be submitted to the Department of Public Instruction or myself and they will be passed along. Feel free to contact me or any member of the executive board with any questions or comments about this matter. Thank you for you support in this matter, hope everyone is enjoying their summer.
-Eric Gage
April 29, 2010
Hello All,
The Wisconsin Student Government has two new officers this year. Our new Vice- President is Sarah Miller from WITC and Kevin MIller from SWTC is our new Administrative Finance Officer. Let us congratulate them on their new positions, I have confidence that they will do an excellent job this year.
Thank you to Eric Wagner and Dave Carle for there service to our Wisconsin Student Government this past year. Attached are the meeting dates for next year. We will keep you updated throughout the summer as to what we are working on for next year. Thank you all for your hard work this year, hope you all have a great summer!
-Eric Gage
March 29, 2010
Hello All,
On March 23rd the WTCS state board set tuition for 2010-2011 school year $106.00 for post-secondary educational credits and $142.20 for collegiate transfer credits, these rates reflect a 4.5% increase for both. Nick Kaspersak, VIcki Breenes, Arber Rrushaj, Sam Aquino-Drohin, and myself attended the meeting on behalf of our Wisconsin Student Government to strongly urge the board to consider the gravity of their actions when setting tuition. The WTCS system is feeling the strain of the economic situation by the massive influx of students entering Wisconsin's technical colleges, this in turn has stretched the fiscal resources of the WTCS system. This was evident in the boards decision to go ahead with the tuition committees recommendation of a 4.5% increase for both post secondary and collegiate transfer credits. The increase is from $101.40 to $106.00 for post secondary and $136.10 to $142.20 in for collegiate transfer credits, which in all reality is not the worst case scenario considering the fiscal shortfall Although the board did not change the recommended increase amount I feel that this was not a total loss. I sense that the board and many throughout the WTCS system have come to the conclusion that students, particularly the Wisconsin Student Government, have become more organized and unified in recent years, gaining momentum and a voice stronger than what has been seen in years. Our voice can not simply be ignored, the opportunity's are growing for us are to share the role of shaping the experience for technical college students of Wisconsin, I strongly believe this is becoming more and more evident throughout the WTCS system. A big thanks to all those that attended the WTCS board meeting, I appreciate it.
The deadline for the contact information for the portability project is coming up on April 2nd. What is needed is 1. The name and email of whom to contact at your local newspapers to submit a letter for an editorial 2. The name and email of the PR or media relations staff member for your college. 3. The name and contact information for one other media outlet representative that serves your area, printed or electronic. Thank you so much to all those who have sent this in already. We as the Wisconsin Student Government have set our path, let us see it through. Thank you, I look forward to seeing you all in April.
-Eric Gage
March 1, 2010
Hello Everybody,
In the April meeting on Saturday in the other business portion we will be discussing a possible partnership between WACTE and WSG on our legislative days. On February 25th the Wisconsin Association for Career and Technical Education held their legislative conference at Madison College downtown campus where we had our January meeting.
WACTE is comprised of faculty and administrators from Wisconsin's technical colleges, attached is an agenda for their conference. I was invited to participate in their second panel discussion about helping faculty and administration to get students more involved with extracurricular organizations and other activities that can provide experience for greater career success. After the discussion a member of the board for WACTE approached me about the idea of combining our legislative conferences as they are in the same week and our interests more oft than not align.
My thoughts are that this would be great for us in numerous ways; as a group if WSG can establish relationships with other organizations that have similar interests then we are stronger for it; For legislative visits, if legislators can see a unified voice of students leaders, faculty and administration, that can only deepen the impact we can make for our causes; The more interaction faculty and administration have with student leaders who exemplify why they should increase, and continue to, involve us in shaping how our respective colleges function and provide opportunity's for students to grow.
I will be in communication with WACTE to see if there would be agreement on dates and possibly an agenda. Nothing is final, at this point I am only exploring such opportunity, this is your organization and we make the decisions as a whole. I would like to point out that we wouldn't have to join for every part of our agenda's, we could split up for parts. When we discuss this in April I hope you will have your questions, comments, or concerns ready so we may have a efficient discussion. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the meantime though with any questions.
The other business at hand would be the portability project. Several testimonials have been received, thanks you to those who submitted them. This does not mean that more are not needed, so please continue to search for those stories, or if you have one yourself, please contact me! The letter is in a draft phase and being reviewed by several of our esteemed colleagues within the WTCS system, so it should be ready for your approval in early April or possibly sooner.
I plan to seek your approval via email. What I ask of you, Governors and Lt. Governors, is to get together with your WSG colleagues from your school to and gather some contact information. The contact information would be
1. The name and email of whom to contact at your local newspapers to submit a letter for an editorial
2. The name and email of the PR or media relations staff member for your college.
3. The name and contact information for one other media outlet representative that serves your area, printed or electronic.
Examples of such could be, but are not limited too, a local free newspaper, a highly read electronic blog or media outlet for your area, a newsletter that goes out in your area. I ask that these be submitted to me via email by April 2nd. Thank you for taking the time to read through all of this. Great things are on the horizon for our Wisconsin Student Government, lets keep the momentum going.
-Eric Gage
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