Financial aid requested

Letter writing campaign asks Senator for more aid

By Benjamin Baxter
The Collegian

Fresno State students had the opportunity to write a letter in support of a bill to a state assemblyperson in a letter-writing demonstration held Thursday.

The bill would increase the age of eligibility for applying for Cal Grant loan applications from 24 years old to 27. It would also increase the number of awards granted to 45,000. Currently, 22,500 awards are awarded.

AB 2813 is sponsored by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre and will make several changes to the Cal Grant program, according to Associated Students and the California State Student Association, sponsors of the demonstration.

The booth, set up in the Free Speech Area along side an inflated “ball and chain,” to symbolize the difficulty students face with financial aid, came to Fresno State for a specific purpose, Katie Yeffa, Associated Students Senator of Education and Human Development said.

Associated Students and the California State Students Association saw a need to publicly encourage Fresno State students to support the bill through handwritten letters as many Fresno State students are eligible for the awards, Yeffa said.

“I think that a demonstration brings a lot of representation to students and gets students aware of their representation higher up,” Yeffa said.

Students participating were given a sample letter to copy onto a separate piece of paper. Yeffa said the letters would be sent to Assemblywoman Judy Chu, chairperson of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

A similar bill died in committee last year, Yeffa said, and AS and CSSA hope to help push this one through.
The response has been more than expected.

“I was expecting to reach our goal of 75 letters over the course of the day,” Yeffa said. “We passed that a while ago, but we decided to still stay until two [p.m.]”

That wasn’t the only thing that caught her off guard.

“I’m also impressed with the knowledge of students about the Cal Grant system,” she said.

The demonstration featured a giant inflated ball and chain and an oversized letter for students to sign that will be presented to Assemblywoman Chu.

“The purpose of this is to not only raise awareness among students,” Yeffa said, “but to raise support for Chairwoman Chu. If you’re working here, you deserve the opportunity to get financial aid.”

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