Columbia Lobbyists Fight for Students

Big corporations and interest groups are not the only ones plunging their feet into the three-ring circus of federal and state politics. For more than 20 years, the University has lobbied Washington and Albany to advance the interests of higher education through the Office of Governmental Affairs.

Through a small office in Low Library, Columbia, like major colleges and universities around the country, has pushed for a variety of issues before Congress and the executive branch, ranging from student aid to highway funding.

"Student aid is always a major concern," said Ellen Smith, the assistant vice president and director of government relations. "Sometimes our successes are in the area of making sure we don't lose money."

For example, a Congressional proposal earlier this year to eliminate Perkins Loans, which represent a significant portion of federal financial aid for students, did not appear in the 2006 budget. This year, students throughout the United States will receive an estimated $7 billion in Perkins Loans, perhaps in part because of universities' lobbying efforts.

In the 2004 fiscal year, Columbia students alone received around $59.3 million in Perkins Loans.

Another major goal of the office is to make sure that the government "understands what [Columbia is] doing with any funding we may receive, and also make sure we communicate our concerns to the executive and legislative branches," Smith said.

In addition to pursuing increased funding, Columbia has recently lobbied for amendments to the Higher Education Bill that emphasize international outreach in the aftermath of September 11th, funding for NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and research funding for the University, which received around $535 million in research grants in 2005.

Columbia also seeks to advance general education policies and scientific research funding through organizations such as the American Association of Universities (AAU), a group of major research universities in the United States and Canada, and the American Council on Education (ACE). In fact, according to Smith, "80 to 90 percent of what [Columbia] does is for general" policies.

While such groups might be effective at the federal level, the same is not necessarily true when lobbying the state government. "In Washington things are done in a coalition, but in Albany things are really not," says Charles Kruzansky, the associate director of state government relations at Cornell University. While both Columbia and Cornell are part of the Coalition of Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU), a group of private New York institutions, they only collaborate in Albany "very occasionally," said Kruzansky.

Kruzansky also noted that schools have different methods of lobbying. For example, while Cornell has small offices in both Washington and Albany, Columbia sometimes uses contract lobbying firms in those areas to supplement the Office of Governmental Affairs.

One thing both schools emphasize, however, is student involvement in their lobbying programs. The Office of Governmental Affairs at Columbia runs annual student trips to both DC and Albany to provide lobbying experience to those interested in public policy and the government, but also to provide a face and a story for the University.

"We feel very strongly that it's great to have student's active and conveying the message," said Smith. "When you bring a student who comes from a district, people stand up and listen."

To facilitate student interest in politics, the office offers to help students apply for Congressional internships in Washington and hosts several events over the summer in DC with Columbia alums involved in federal politics, including political analyst George Stephanopoulos and Senators Barrack Obama (D-Ill.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).