Student leaders from the three Iowa regent universities will join forces in Des Moines today to rally against the proposed budget in the Legislature that would cut millions of dollars from their schools’ budget requests.

If the Legislature’s budget passes, Iowa State could see a cut of up to $11 million from its request for state money. Student leaders hope the unified effort will open lines of communication with the legislators and allow students to express their feelings about the proposed cuts.

“The purpose of the day is to go down and talk to the legislators and tell them how the budget cuts would affect us,” said Government of the Student Body President-elect Ben Golding. “It’s a huge cooperative effort. Hopefully, that will make the difference.”

Matt Craft, current GSB president, said student leaders want to show the magnitude of concern among the university students who will be affected by the budget cuts.

“I think we just want to show the Legislature there is significant support among the students and concern about the current budget problems,” he said.

Golding said about 100 students are expected to participate in the rally, which will begin after a 10 a.m. press conference to which many Iowa media outlets have been invited. The rally will be at the statehouse.

“We are focusing on three main points,” Golding said. “The decrease in funding is going to hurt the quality, affordability and accessibility of Iowa State.”

The microphone at the rally will be open for the student leaders to share their opinions about the budget cuts, Golding added.

“We can say that these are the issues we’re concerned about,” he said. “People can tell how it will affect them personally.”

Following the rally, student leaders will have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with the legislators.

“We’ll get some of their opinions and give them some of our opinions,” Craft said. “Hopefully, we’ll make a dent.”

Golding said the effort against the proposed cuts not only has united the regent universities, but it has unified the ISU student government.

“The coolest part about this is it’s really brought GSB together,” he said.

The rally is only one part of the triple-tiered battle against the cut, as students have been sending letters and e-mail to the legislators voicing their opinions.

In addition, GSB unanimously passed a resolution last week that stated, “The proposed cuts in education would force the schools to increase class size, reduce the number of faculty and staff, eliminate valuable programs and increase student tuition.”

For more information about the proposed budget cuts, students may go to the GSB Web site at www.gsb.iastate.edu.