Burnt Orange Report

GOP Budget Cuts Hurt Students

By Byron LaMasters

The effects of this year's Republican budget cuts have deep effects throughout the state of Texas... and students are no exception. In July, I blogged on the cuts forcing the UT computer lab to reduce their hours. Then it was the Aggie Journalism Department being axed. Now? It's Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. The Daily Texan reports (bold text is done by me):

Richard Avila can't find a single job on campus.

The biology sophomore looked for work on hirealonghorn.com, but couldn't find anything that fit his schedule.

"There's a lot less jobs than there were last year," he said. "It's getting kind of hard because of budget cuts ... not many people are hiring."

On-campus jobs provide adequate pay and don't require personal transportation. As the 2003 fall semester gets under way, more and more students are realizing that the availability of these jobs has decreased and continues to drop.

Most available jobs go first to work-study students, who are in the most need of financial assistance. Due to the recent budget cuts, work-study students are more appealing to the University when hiring employees, Don Davis, the associate director of the Office of Student Financial Services said.

Davis is not surprised to hear that students are having trouble finding jobs at the University. There are, "squeezes everywhere," he said.

"Student workers can be a luxury or a necessity, depending on the circumstance," Davis said. "Some departments that are forced to make cuts may cut student positions first ... However, it is cheaper to hire a student than a regular [non-student] employee."

[...]

Laura Pak, a sociology senior, qualified for the work-study program all four years at the University, but only received the funds her freshman year.

"I qualified for work-study, but I was told they didn't have enough funds to employ me, so I'm looking off campus," Pak said.

Pak is currently taking out a loan to cover her housing bill.

"Some people are able to pay for college comfortably," she said. "I can't, and this is just the way I have to do it."

Sounds like we got ourselves a good election year theme next year. Republican/Bush/Perry/[insert local Republican elected official here] budget cuts / tax cuts are bad for the economy, irresponsible, hurt children, hurt students, hurt the elderly and disabled, and most of all hurt average workers and kill jobs, and won't get better until we change the direction of government in this state/country.