Democratic state legislators shared a room in the Memorial Union Tuesday with students and college affordability advocates in an effort to hear grassroots ideas to make college more affordable for university students.
The event, which was put on in conjunction with several campus organizations, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison College Democrats and The Young Progressives, featured minority leadership from both houses of the legislature and several other area legislators. State Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, and state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, who both represent the campus area in the state legislature, sat on the panel.
The lead legislator behind the panel, state Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, introduced the purpose of the panel, saying it was held to receive student input to generate ideas that would allow students to “flourish in Wisconsin.” He added college students are often left out of the decision-making process, even when it deals with student-related issues.
The approximately 20 people who attended the discussion addressed issues ranging from losing tenant rights to the ever-rising cost of tuition at the state’s universities.
Charlie Hoffmann, chairman of the UW-Madison College Republicans, who were absent from the discussion, said in a statement the Democratic legislators forget that Republicans were primarily responsible for keeping college affordable for Wisconsin’s middle class.
"Democratic state leaders can pretend to care about making college affordable when in reality they are the ones who voted against Governor Walker's UW-System two-year tuition freeze in the last budget,” Hoffmann said in the statement.
The assembled legislators took notes during the session and promised to consider the requests as they go back to the legislative session.
