Whether talking about medical amnesty or college affordability, ASUI legislative ambassadors will aim to create a closer connection between the University of Idaho and Idaho state lawmakers as they head to Boise this spring.
ASUI Director of Policy Nick Wren, who is in charge of ASUI”s Legislative Ambassador program, said the program sends a group of students, usually from ASUI, to Boise every January soon after the beginning of the legislative session. During the two-day trip, students meet with legislators to lobby for ASUI”s interests.
“We”ve gotten a lot of feedback from legislators who really liked meeting with students from their own districts,” Wren said.
Wren is looking for 35 outgoing applicants who are preferably Idaho natives because of the state-focused nature of the program and the new pairing system. Applications are due Nov. 7.
Wren said this year the group will focus on pairing ambassadors with legislators from their home districts. Additionally, he said the trip will likely last an extra day to give students and lawmakers more time to communicate.
Wren has gone in the past, and said he plans to go again this year. He said in past years the university president would address the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee and deans of various colleges would set up displays in the capitol.
Wren said this time the event will not have displays and that they will instead have a luncheon to encourage more one-on-one conversations with UI representatives and legislators.
“I”ve never really had an opportunity to connect like this,” said ASUI Senator McKenzie MacDonald, who plans to apply for the program.
She said she wants to be a legislative ambassador because of her passion for policymaking – especially on higher education.
In the program, ASUI suggests lobbying points and then trains the ambassadors before giving them free reign at the capitol.
Wren said that these lobbying points have traditionally been almost identical with those of the university leadership, but they still make the trip to Boise to give a student perspective to legislators.
He said he thinks ASUI definitely made a difference last year lobbying alongside university administration for a Change in Employee Compensation increase.
With the introduction of ASUI”s resolution to lobby for a statewide medical amnesty bill, Wren said this will be the first year that their lobbying points have a distinct difference from the university leadership.
Wren said another main lobbying point will address the cost of higher education. For many people, college can be unaffordable – something ASUI and the university have worked on in the past and will continue to work on this spring, Wren said.
“We do want to see scholarship increases,” he said.
Wren said Idaho has one of the worst going-on rates in the U.S., and he wants to make sure ambassadors discuss that with legislators.
Wren said the extremely conservative nature of the state can create a difficult environment for higher education.
“Every year we see bills to defund and privatize public universities,” he said. “Of course those get shot down in committee, but it shows what kind of atmosphere we are working in.”
Some lawmakers, Wren said, do not realize what the university does for their constituents through job creation and research money. He said meeting with legislative ambassadors from UI can act as a light-bulb moment.
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan