The United States Student Association (USSA) is urging collegiates nationwide to contact their local senators and fight for student aid reform legislation in a week they have entitled “Raising Pell.” The members of the USSA have strategically decided to go into action the week before the ballot goes out to raise awareness to politicians about the need for student aid reform.

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) voted in early August to campaign for the preservation of Cal Grants by pushing the state to amend its constitution.

The campaign came in response to Gov. Swarzenegger’s proposed state budget revision that opts to phase out Cal Grants starting in 2011. If Cal grants are not made permanent prior to that date, nearly half the undergraduate population at UCSC could eventually be affected.

With California inching closer towards insolvency, legislators must find a way to cut $24 billion from the state budget. But what do students in higher education stand to lose in the budget crisis? City on a Hill takes a closer look at the proposed cuts to the Cal Grant.

In an act of despotism and disregard for the voice of California voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed cutting many of this state’s most vital programs in his most recent budget plan. Education is once again on the legislative chopping block, and public higher education systems — as well as educational preparation programs — are in grave danger.

Twelve hours after leaving UC Santa Cruz, the caravan of student government officers and interns prepared to leave Sacramento behind. Hundreds of UC, CSU, and California Community College system (CCC) students filed out of the Capitol Building, clinging to the hope that legislators might heed their testimonies. “What is at stake here,” UCSC Student Union Assembly (SUA) external vice chair Victor Sanchez said to the budget committee, “is more than the future of our system of higher education, but that of the state of California.”