CU severs ties with state
student lobbying organization

By Perry Swanson
The Metropolitan

The Colorado Student Association lobbying group will be unaffected by losing up to 25 percent of its funding, an official there said.

Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder voted this month to cancel the collegeâs membership in the organization, also canceling a $25,000 yearly contribution to CSA coffers.

ãCSA will continue to function as it always has with absolutely no change,ä said Nathanael Koch, director of legislative affairs.

The group lobbies state lawmakers on student-related issues such as tuition increases and, this year, bills to tighten public access to student information and increasing the penalty for hazing. Metro contributes $12,000 yearly to CSA, about 50 cents per student.

Andy Nicholas, a Metro student and newly-elected Student Government Assembly president, was the chairman of CSA this year.

ãWeâre really a lot more cohesive now that CU-Boulder is not here,ä Nicholas said. ãThey spent a lot of their time during the meetings trying to disrupt the process because they had already decided they didnât want to be a part of it.ä

The referendum that cut relations between the college and CSA passed by only five votes earlier this month.

ãCan you imagine throwing away $25,000 to an organization that legitimizes the conservative funding requests of the state bureaucracy?ä said a column in the Colorado Daily by CU-Boulder student government members.

Koch said all students in Colorado benefit from CSA lobbying.

He said tuition rates across the state will rise by only 1.3 percent this year, largely thanks to CSA influence on lawmakers.

But student government members at CU-Boulder argued that CSA didnât affect the process. Jeremy Hoffman, chief of staff at CU-Boulderâs student government, predicted the funding decrease would hurt CSA.

ãIt will have to affect them,ä he said. ãI personally donât see how they can get through without reducing staff.ä

There are 14 member institutions in CSA, each with one representative to the group.

Colleges also send one delegate per every 2,500 full-time student to CSA meetings, which happen 12 times a year.