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A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin College. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: April 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Dana Schmitz, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, campus correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Nick Young, photographer and layout.
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Collin students express concerns at Texas capitol
By Stephanie Hall
Student Correspondent
Taking the opportunity while the Texas legislature was in session, several Collin students traveled to the state capitol to join thousands of other community college students from all over Texas to express their concerns about rising textbook costs during the 2007 Community College Day Feb. 22.
The event was sponsored by the Texas Junior College Student Government Association. The event was established to show support for two legislative bills on the agenda to be discussed and voted on: full funding for Texas Higher Education, a state mandate for textbooks to be used for a minimum of three years, and a proposed Tax Free Textbooks bill. Texas students took this opportunity to travel to the state capital because the Texas legislature only meets every two years.
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| Chadi El-Khoury, Colin College student, sits in on a session of the Texas legislature. | The trip was an opportunity student Chadi El-Khoury utilized to make his voice heard.
“I wanted to be a part of this because I believe college has changed my life, and I want other people to have the opportunities I’ve had while I’ve been here,” he said. “The trip to Austin was an opportunity for me to open the way for others to be able to afford to attend college, and I wanted to get that across to the people who can make a difference,” he continued. “It was a relief that my voice was heard.”
The educational reason behind the trip was so students would understand the political process, said Lynda Gates, the director of Student Life at Collin College.
“It was very exciting when the students took the opportunity to the next level by making appointments with the very people who worked at the capitol," Gates said.
One student, Tony Seagroves, managed to make a couple appointments, and he brought some of his fellow students from Collin’s Student Leadership Academy II class with him. During one meeting, five SLA II students talked with two of State Representative Burt R. Solomons’ office staff for about two hours. First, the students expressed their support for the three bills.
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| Collin students met with Burt R. Solomons’ Legislative Director Bonnie Bruce | Solomons’ Legislative Director Bonnie Bruce and Legislative Assistant Kari Torres discussed the specific bills, and then went on to explain how the legislative process works. Bruce explained that those people who want to make a difference need to really become involved with and informed about politics.
“If you want to interact with politics, you have to work at it,” said Bruce. Bruce and Torres went on to provide tips for how a concerned citizen can influence change. “First of all, you can’t look at short-term goals,” said Bruce.
She explained that a vague complaint is not enough to get the attention of most representatives. A citizen who wants change really needs to become involved with the process and should research the problem and provide possible solutions. Once a concern is turned into a bill, the citizen should follow the bill through the entire process from the House of Representatives to the State Senate and so on. The actual process in incredibly intricate, so knowledge about the political process in crucial, said Bruce.
Wanting to provide as many opportunities as possible for the SLA II students to learn about politics, Bruce and Torres convinced William H. Yarnell Jr. to join the discussion. Yarnell is a lobbyist who was more than happy to explain his duties as a lobbyist. As a lobbyist for different companies, Yarnell explained that it is his job to make sure his clients are represented. But more than that, Yarnell said he also has an ethical responsibility to ensure his clients play by the rules.
“People hire lobbyists for perspective. They hire them because they know the rules,” he said. "To be successful, a lobbyist must be incredible knowledgeable, personable and ethical. Here in politics, all you have is your credibility.”
For more information about how to navigate the ambiguous playing field of Texas politics, visit www.legis.state.tx.us.
“It is really important for people to get involved with politics,” said Bruce. “Democracy is every citizen’s responsibility,” said Bruce.
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