Michigan Tech students rally in Lansing for higher education funding

In Lansing today, March 25, 2010, Michigan Tech University Undergraduate Student Government members hold up their banner after an all night bus ride on Superior Lines to join a student rally protesting higher education funding cuts. Pictured here with the banner are, from left, Lucia Gregorakis (chemical engineering), Travis Waineo (electrical engineering), Tyler Martell (chemical engineering) and other MTU students.(Photo Courtesy Marshall J. Anderson, Pyykka-Photo.com)*

By Jennifer Donovan, Michigan Tech director of public relations

LANSING -- A busload of Michigan Tech students joined college and university students from across Michigan at a massive rally in Lansing on March 25. They gathered in front of the Capitol to protest higher education funding cuts and to urge Michigan's legislators to support higher education adequately.

Students from Michigan Technological University pause for a quick photo on the steps of the Capitol building in Lansing Thursday morning, March 25. (Photo Courtesy Marshall J. Anderson, Pyykka-Photo.com)

"Lansing's math doesn't add up," is their message to the state's policymakers.

Michigan Tech's Undergraduate Student Government (USG) organized Tech's participation in the rally sponsored by the Student Associations of Michigan (SAM). The students left Houghton for the long bus ride to Lansing at 8 p.m. on March 24. The bus ride was free.

"I believe that higher education is a priority for Michigan," said Keshon Moorehead, an electrical engineering major from Detroit who chairs the Michigan Tech USG's External Affairs Committee. "I believe in fighting for what's right."

"The state needs to step up," Moorehead added. " And we need to step up and tell them so."

Michigan Tech undergraduates Travis Waineo and Leanna Van Slooten worked with Moorehead on the organizing committee. They papered the campus with posters and sent fliers inviting students to participate.

Michigan Tech students, from left, Travis Waineo, Keshon Moorehead and Leanna Van Slooten -- all members of Tech's Undergraduate Student Government External Affairs Committee -- prepare posters and fliers to invite student participation in their bus ride to Lansing for the protest against higher education funding cuts. (Photo Courtesy Michigan Technological University)

At least one of the Tech organizers planned to join a group of students from Michigan's other public universities, entering the legislative chambers and stating their case. SAM prepared a set of grievances.

Les Cook, vice president for student affairs, sent a letter to faculty, asking for their consideration for students who missed classes because of their participation in the Lansing rally. The legislature's elimination this year of the Michigan Promise Scholarship and the Michigan Competitive Grant cost nearly 1,300 students at Michigan Tech $2.2 million, Cook noted.

*Editor's Note: Guest photographer Marshall Anderson, originally from Keweenaw County and now living in the Lansing area, is a former Daily Mining Gazette photographer and colleague of Keweenaw Now's editor. Thanks, Marshall!