Students from Iowa’s three Regent universities will descend upon the state’s capitol Monday to lobby against proposed budget cuts to the state institutions in the next fiscal year.

This activist movement, led by ISU Ambassadors, a student organization and the arm of the Government of the Student Body that lobbies on students’ behalf, is being made in attempts to put a face to the students that the legislators are taking money from. The Regents Day at the Capitol is also intended to exhibit the cooperation capable between students from Iowa’s three Regent universities.

The proposed cuts apply to the entire Regents system. Governor Terry Branstad proposed a 6-percent across-the-board cut, while the Iowa House has proposed a 9-percent decrease to the universities.

Jessica Bruning, director of the ISU Ambassadors, said their goal to see any kind of reduction in the amount of budget cuts.

“We don’t have a specific number,” Bruning said. “We’re pretty much just begging for anything.”

Several members of GSB’s executive board and the senate are planning to attend.

“GSB is really giving a big push to stop the cuts,” said Luke Roling, GSB president.

The three Regent Universities have already been heavily impacted by cuts made by the state in the past three years.

“At the University of Iowa 12 graduate programs have been eliminated, and fewer faculty members are teaching more students,” said David Miles, president of the Board of Regents in an editorial on the Regents’ website. “ISU students are experiencing larger classes, more crowded laboratories, and fewer elective choices. And with additional cuts, the University of Northern Iowa expects fewer full-time faculty, more adjunct professors, fewer courses and larger class size.”

“The university is running very lean right now,” Roling said. “The financial burden [if the budget cuts are passed] will have to come back on students or it will really start impacting critical programs.”

Among the most frightening of the consequences of the budget cuts, Roling said, is the loss of important faculty. Already professors haven’t received faculty raises and were actually forced to take a pay decrease due to mandatory furlough days last year.

Tuition would also have to be increased in the wake of the budget cuts, which would significantly increase the financial burden on already overstressed students and their families. Bruning estimates the university would increase tuition by approximately 5 percent.

“Just raising tuition isn’t going to cut it,” Bruning said. “If we want to make up for all the cuts we received we’d have to raise tuition by something like 30 percent.”

The university is not willing to take measures that drastic, however. It is for this reason that much of the university reductions would focus around programming.

“These cuts will result in larger classes, less faculty, and cut programs,” Bruning said.

Many students are not happy with the proposed budget cuts and their consequences. Some expressed that tuition is already very expensive.

“I would really like [tuition] not to be raised,” said Victoria Pioszak, junior in music. “I’m out of state as it is.”

Deborah Bierschenk, also a junior in music, is unhappy about the budget cuts. Both students, along with several others, are supportive of the Ambassadors’ effort to lobby for reductions to the budget cuts.

“I’m definitely thinking about going [with them],” said Christina Goeddel, junior in chemical engineering. She also said that while she doesn’t agree with the budget cuts, it is not as bad here as in other places.

Bruning said she received several e-mails in response to a university-wide publicity e-mail she sent last week. While many of the responses cited political disagreement as reasoning to oppose the Ambassadors’ effort, others hinted of apathy because the students had full-tuition scholarships.

The fact that programming and academics will be affected by the budget cuts is Bruning’s main concern and she stressed that even students with full-tuition scholarships have a lot to lose.

Students on campus have taken note of the changes that have resulted from previous years’ budget cuts.

“It seems like a lot of stuff is being cut lately — not just school stuff,” said Steve Cavanagh, junior in civil engineering. “A lot of people are losing coop positions, internships, and other stuff like that.”

Students interested in attending the Regents Day at the Capitol can register for a spot on the shuttles going to and from the capitol online through Sunday.

Ambassadors are also providing a lobbying training session at 3 p.m. Friday in 268 Carver. President Geoffroy and Ann McCarthy, Iowa State’s state relations officer, will be in attendance. The training event is meant to provide lobbyists with the tools and background information that will allow them to make a persuasive case to legislators.

Free buses and a free lunch will be provided for students going to the capitol with the Ambassadors. The buses will depart from the west side of the Memorial Union at 10 a.m. and will return shortly before 4 p.m. students are encouraged to register to ensure that all interested can be accomodated.