Political Affairs Updates

The rams day in the hill event is this wednsday, snow or shine. It's been a long and crazy process to get here but it's been fun. After Wednsday, I will start helping out our vice prez with the World Cup.

Everything is in place for the event. I just have to send out an email to Bob Andrews, who is a professor at VCU to get some other represenation from our university. Thanks to everyone that's helped in this process and it was a pleasure to put this together for VCU.

Very busy week this week. The late night breakfast was a great opportunity for me to recruit more people for the Rams Day on The Hill Event. I'm guessing that I have about 15 people on deck right now. This number will expand by the time Feb. 3rd comes around. On Monday, I will send out an e-mail to a brunch of different departments asking for VCU gear. I planned on doing it this week, but my week has been crazy. Other then that, I hope everybody has a great break.

Not a very busy week, considering we went on break.
But there are still a few things to update on:

-I found out the name of the new organization that I talked about in last weeks cabinet meeting. Their name is the Virginia Education Coalition, and the main issue the what to tackle is the continued rise in the cost of higher education.

- The VA general Assembly goes back into session on Jan. 16. So were going to the capital three weeks after the opening of the session. Hopefully no bill dealing with the state budget (which is the main thing that effects state university tuition) will be introduced or voted on.

- Currently there are no bills introduced in the house or senate that deal with the budget or any with higher education. Here's the website:

- Also have found most of the contact info for the senators and delegates that students choose to talk to.

That's it....hope to see you guys and girls on Monday.

A busy week this week, it started on Monday with the VA 21 conference. It went well, but I had an issue which I will rise at our cabinet meeting. Next, I spoke to the senate and there seems to be alot of intrest in the rams day on the hill event. I have 8 people already committed to the event plus most of the LICA commitee. Last but not least, I spoke with Morgan McDowell and she has offered us a huge amount of VCU gear( for free) to give to the legistures as gifts. I sent her a thank you email on Friday for everything she's has done for us.

Had a meeting with VA 21 to get some things clear as to our role with them and it went very well, better then I expected. Me and a couple of members of the SGA will go to VA 21's conference on Monday to make sure we have a voice in any issues they want to take up when they lobby at the state legislature. Next, I'm going to speak to the senate about the Rams Day On The Hill event. I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be fired up and ready to participate once I'm done speaking with them. Lastly, I'm going to talk to Eberly about getting some type of clothing that is VCU related, so when we go up to capital hill, people will know we're from VCU.

I got in contact with Morgan McDowell about getting some alumni to attend the Rams day on the hill. Also I decided on a date for the event, it will be on Feb. 3rd. The time and other ideas will be announced next week. I'm also meeting with VA21 on Wendsday, hopefully we can iron out the issue with the waiver and clearing up the issue of stating our position with them.

I meet with VA 21 last Saturday, the discussion focused on thier upcoming event on Nov. 16. I also spoke to Mark Smith about our upcoming lobbying event "Rams Day on the hill." We're looking at a late Jan or early Feb.

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