Student Association
On March 8, five SUNY Oneonta students went to the State Capitol Building in Albany, N.Y. to lobby and advocate for students’ rights to the state legislators.
The Oneonta representatives met with two of the state senators’ staff to talk about rational tuition, disability accommodations on campus, and TAP grants for graduate students.
The SA made it very clear that they were not in favor of an increase in tuition but if it’s inevitable, they want an early notice of how much it’ll be increasing, why it is increasing, and how the extra money will directly benefit the students.
When discussing disability accommodations, the group lobbied for an increase in capital improvement funding for the state. Their argument was that our buildings are old and need to be updated to accommodate the disabled students on campus.
Lastly, they advocated for the reinstatement of the TAP grant for graduate students of SUNY. The TAP award for graduate students was revoked back in 2010 and was crucial for a lot of students. The SA wants that award given to graduate students again to help ease the financial burden of attending graduate school.
Overall, it was a very successful day in the Capital of New York and Student Association will continue to advocate for these changes until the state holds up their end of the bargain.
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