The UNMC Student Senate recently went on record in opposition to the spending cap initiative, which will appear on the November ballot.
“As a Student Senate, we are very concerned about the devastating effect this amendment will have on public education in the state of Nebraska,” said Student Senate President Dan Connealy.
“The cost of secondary, and post-secondary education in our state has increased dramatically over the past decade,” he said. “This amendment, if passed, will significantly reduce state funding for UNMC. The reductions in state appropriations will further shift the burdensome cost of education to our students and their families through tuition increases.”
The Senate’s resolution regarding Initiative 423 passed unanimously during the board’s Oct. 2 meeting. The resolution, in part, reads: “The UNMC Student Senate strongly opposes the proposed amendment to the constitution to cap state spending, and further, we urge all Nebraskans to consider the important role UNMC plays in educating Nebraskans and providing state of the art healthcare to its people, and we ask Nebraskans across the state to actively oppose this initiative to cap state spending.”
Read the full resolution below:
WHEREAS, an initiative will appear on the November ballot aimed at amending the Constitution of Nebraska to cap state spending and suspend majority rule by requiring a two-thirds vote to pass certain budget and appropriations measures, and
WHEREAS, the students at UNMC and post-secondary institutions across the state rely on state appropriations to subsidize the increasing costs of education, and
WHEREAS, the burdensome cost of post-secondary and graduate education has grown significantly in the last 15 years and has drastically increased individual costs to Nebraska families, and
WHEREAS, decreasing state appropriations for public education will increase the tuition burden facing our students, and will ultimately have a deleterious affect on both recruiting and retaining Nebraska’s brightest students, and
Whereas, UNMC is the major contributor of trained health care professionals to the state of Nebraska, and
WHEREAS, the mission of the University of Nebraska is to make quality education accessible and affordable for all Nebraskans, and adoption of the proposed amendment would greatly reduce alternatives to tuition increases for funding UNMC, and
WHEREAS, the mission of the UNMC Student Senate is to exist for the purpose of influencing policy and promoting the interests of all students attending the University of Nebraska Medical Center and to serve as an agency through which relationships between students, faculty, administration and the general public may be maintained, and
WHEREAS, as Student Senate members, it is our duty to adopt, in the name of the UNMC Student Senate, resolutions on public issues and recommendations concerning affairs which affect the University,
THEREFORE, let it be resolved that the UNMC Student Senate strongly opposes the proposed amendment to the constitution to cap state spending, and further, we urge all Nebraskans to consider the important role UNMC plays in educating Nebraskans and providing state of the art healthcare to its people, and we ask Nebraskans across the state to actively oppose this initiative to cap state spending.