Higher Education Day is an event held in Montgomery to lobby for better funding for higher education.
The event will be held this year on Tuesday, Feb. 28 and transportation will be provided to University students by SGA. Lunch will be provided by the Higher Education Partnership.
The Higher Education Day Rally is Montgomery’s largest annual advocacy rally, according to the Higher Education Partnership of Alabama.
The Higher Education Partnership of Alabama said “by having a large number of attendees, the universities let legislators know that we are not only concerned about the funding of higher education.”
SGA’s Director of Government Relations Calvin Wilborn, junior in public administration, said increasing the Higher Education Fund would allow more people to have the Auburn experience, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
“The legislator allocates a certain amount of funding to the Higher Education Fund this year," Wilborn said. "The higher education funding is, the lower the tuition rates are. That’s why it’s so important that the University and its students take part in this.”
The rally will have 14 Alabama four-year public universities in total participating, with the goal to advocate the needs and communicate the importance of higher education to the people of Alabama and its lawmakers.
“The higher the Higher Education funding is, the lower the tuition rates are and the more students can afford to go to higher education schooling," Wilborn said. "Specifically we do for Auburn, but of course all of the other schools represented there as well."
This issues are still relevant to people currently in school and taking out loans, Wilborn said.
“And for the people already here, who maybe had to take out student loans or however their college is being paid for, it would deflate their cost if we had more higher education funding,” Wilborn added.
Auburn students attending will leave at 9 a.m. from the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and will be back from Montgomery between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the latest, according to Wilborn.
“As many students who would like to attend can go with us," Wilborn said. "We will provide breakfast that morning, transportation, t-shirts and lunch will be provided."
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