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Welcome to SIC

To old, new, and prospective members, welcome to the Student Issue Committee's official website.  Throughout the 2007-2008 school year, here you'll be able to find everything SIC-related, from our meeting times and minutes, to events we're planning and participating in, and, if last year is any indication, plenty of useless and humorous nonsense, too.  Click to see what SIC has to offer.

Below, you'll find a summary of our current and upcoming projects.  Regardless of your level of experience, if you're interested, just come to a meeting or send us an email.  We'll take anyone we can get (terms and conditions apply, acquire within).

This year, we will be focusing at least preliminarily on two issues: Student Voting Rights and Disenfranchisement, and the Ever-Increasing Cost of Education.  Considering the first, voters, especially young voters, face a variety of election-day obstacles in Michigan.  Among several, Roger's Law is undoubtedly the most troubling, East Lansing Representative Mike Roger’s infamous 1999 creation (available in full here: http://archive.legislature.mi.gov/documents/1999-2000/publicact/pdf/1999-PA-0118.pdf but not recommended) requires Michigan residents to register to vote using the address found on their driver’s license.  This leaves the many students who spend Election Day away from home (hmmm...who might that be) with several rather undesirable options: changing the address on their driver’s license (and continuing to, each and every time they move), driving home mid-week, or voting absentee, a right Michigan election code conveniently denies first-time voters.  In May 2007, Representative Rebekah Warren, Ann Arbor’s own, proposed House Bills 4447 and 4448, which call for Roger's Law's repeal (available in full here: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billanalysis/House/htm/2007-HLA-4447-1.htm).  Since, both have been approved first by the House Ethics and Elections committee and second, by the Michigan House of Representatives itself (on July 30th, for the record), though their progress through the Republican-controlled State Senate will be much more difficult, if not impossible.  This will likely turn out to be our most consuming first-semester project... while the voter registration process could be simplified, (for example, the form itself could be clearer and same day registration would be awesome) this is a great opportunity for SIC to step up and make an important and lasting difference. 

As written above, we also plan to explore the astronomic cost of secondary education.  In Michigan and across the country, the cost of education is not only increasing but often outpacing inflation.  This is troublesome for several reasons, though primarily because it is likely to disproportionately affect minority and low-income students and because there are so many different people (and things) responsible.  Universities have a variety of solutions, besides tuition increases, to consider, many of which are extensively discussed by Melissa Markowitz here: http://www.aascu.org/policy_matters/v4_1/default.htm, but in brief, include consortiums, purchase sharing, utility-cost-cutting sustainable energy policies and the somewhat unappealing use of technology to educate more students for less.  Exactly how much money public universities will receive when the new fiscal year starts October 1st is , as of August 15th, yet to be decided.  However, so far in 2007, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop has committed Republicans to “adequate” funding for state universities, but called for salary and benefit cuts too.  While Democrats haven't been much more convincing, our tuition bills have; every year, the price of an education is increasing, but are our education becoming more valuable?  In Michigan, the problem is of special importance.  For Michigan residents, plagued by the nation’s highest unemployment rate and overall economic stagnation, in state (and out of state) tuition is increasing precisely when students and their families have less money to spend. 

For More information, contact Malachi, at zussdobb@umich.edu