Hi all,

As exciting and successful of a day this has been, eyes remain on the
Governor's Mansion and the Arizona State Legislature. I am grateful to
theover 1,000 people who showed up to the protest today. I would also
like to especially thank those volunteers from the College of Science
Graduate Council and our officers and Representatives who were present.
They did a phenomenal job gathering well over 300 signatures from the
protesters who showed, and helped draw attention to the protest in
progress. It was a job well done and we could not have done our part
without their help.

However, our hard work does not stop with a single protest. What this
does for us today is reaffirm our message that higher education should be
funded and not suffer the draconian cuts that Senator Pearce and
Representative Kavanagh haverecommended. Our fight is not going to be
easy, and it will have to be swift. Senator Pearce is doing his utmost
bestto move up the State Senate's Appropriations vote. With a vote
initially scheduled for February 1st, he informed University Presidents
thatthis was a serious proposal. Normally a proposal such as this would
need more than just 2 weeks to digest, but Pearce has not given even that
muchtime. Latest word is that Pearce has scheduled a vote for Wednesday
January 28th to pass this measure out of committee. These tactics show
that the Senator Pearce is trying to stifle any reasonable negotiations on
thebudget measure and ram it through the committee. With the resignation
of now-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napalitano, we face a Governor
Jan Brewer as early as tomorrow morning. One party rule is present on the
State Government, and they have demonstrated a hostility to higher
education unlike any other prior to this one.

The Arizona Board of Regents is due to meet on Thursday at 1 pm in the

North Ballroom, with word that the new Governor will be present. I would
urge any and all to spread the word of this meeting, so that Governor Jan
Brewer sees the masses that are opposed to the proposal from
Pierce/Kavanagh. It is going to take demonstrations, protests, mass phone
callsand letter writing campaigns to defeat this measure. We will have
to convince 3 moderate Republicans in the State Senate and 5 moderate
Republicans in the State Legislature to vote against this budget proposal.
We can do this,I know we are a strong and hard working group. Let us
show the State Legislature and the new Governor that we will not go out
quietly with this proposal.

Best,

Stephen W. Bieda, III

Graduate & Professional Student Body President
The University of Arizona