Over 50 students took a field trip to Albany on Tuesday to participate in Lobby Day.
New York Public Interest Research Group organized the excursion as part of their higher
education campaign. In Albany, the group of students spoke with representatives about the
increasing cost of college tuition.
Approximately 1,000 students from colleges across the state participated in Lobby Day.
“The goals of it are really to tell elected officials how we feel about higher education and how
it’s unaffordable and how we would like to increase financial aid, lower tuition and expand the
Tuition Assistance Program to grad students or law students,” said Ohanes Kalayjian, a Buffalo
State student who went on the trip with NYPIRG.
Students will be talking with several local officials, including Senator Mark Grisanti and
Assemblyman Sean Ryan.
“Because there are only a few schools in Western New York that come down for this event, we’ll
also be talking with some of the others legislators that may not necessarily be in our district,”
said Patricia Ceravole, coordinator for Buffalo State’s NYPIRG chapter. “We’re going down to
represent our own beliefs and the 11,000 students that are on this campus and are from all over
the state.”
Although NYPIRG goes to Albany every spring for Lobby Day, this was Kalayjian’s first time
going. He said he hoped the discussions with the legislators would provoke change, especially
with tuition costs.
“Academics should come before anything else,” Kalayjian said. “This is why we’re here, but at
the same time, we’re here paying to come here and we’re going to be paying more every year
as part of SUNY’s plan.”
Some students who went on the trip got waivers from professors, allowing them to participate in
the field trip instead of attending class.
“If we’re going to convince elected officials that this is a cause worth fighting for, they need to
see numbers,” Kalayjian said. “I think if professors knew that students were going to Albany
advocating for these issues, they’d be very supportive of it.”
According to Ceravole, student participation for Lobby Day is essential to reaching the goal of
preventing more tuition hikes.
“Thousands of students coming down to Albany to give their own personal experience of how
higher education affordability issues have affected them, goes so much farther than somebody
that is a professional lobbyist,” Ceravole said. “The stories and the personal experiences from
the students are critical for us with this issue.”
Katie Anderson can be reached by email at anderson.record@live.com.