With a potential double-digit tuition hike looming, student leaders are urging Gov. Martin O’Malley to hold a special legislative session that could reverse the significant cuts to higher education this state may face.

As the last day of the state legislative session drew to a close Monday evening, the state House and Senate failed to pass a bill that would generate revenue for the state and front some of the operating budget’s cost.

This saddles education with sweeping cuts to their state funding – including $63 million for higher education and nearly $50 million to the University System of Maryland, according to university lobbyist Ross Stern – prompting students to start mobilizing Tuesday morning to reverse these cuts.

Since this year’s General Assembly ended Monday, O’Malley would need to call for a special legislative session to stop the “doomsday budget,” which Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s) said would likely translate into tuition increases of at least 10 percent.

“It frankly places a huge burden on many students,” said Zach Cohen, the Student Government Association’s director of governmental affairs. “We’re not talking about just a few people here. We’re talking about a wide swath of students whose families aren’t able to take the brunt of a 10 percent tuition increase. It’s just a really bad situation right now.”

Several SGA members said student leaders across the system’s 12 institutions will work this week to lobby O’Malley to hold a special legislative session for lawmakers to reconsider the budget. The SGA also plans to pass an emergency resolution at tonight’s meeting urging the governor to call for this session – which some lawmakers said he is likely to do anyway — and to continue to fight for college affordability.

Cohen said he was disappointed legislators did not manage to pass a budget that prioritized higher education in the allotted 90 days. If the revenue-generating bill is passed, the system will see a $5.3 million reduction in funds.

Student leaders across the system fought for months to lobby state lawmakers with representatives from 10 system institutions mobilizing to form the grassroots activism movement USM Students for Affordability group. Cohen said more than 22,000 people, primarily students, called and emailed lawmakers asking them to push for the lowest possible tuition hikes.

Although Cohen said he hoped this movement will be able to influence legislators to hold a special legislative session, others said $5.3 million is too much to cut from the system.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve been working on these affordability issues all year and in one fell swoop, because of the failures of our state legislators to come to an agreement, we are the ones who suffer here on the campus,” said SGA President Kaiyi Xie.

With the “dust still rising” from the budget’s passage Monday night, Cohen said student leaders need to wait to determine what feasible alternatives they could lobby for to keep higher education affordable.

“It is imperative to all 150,000 system of Maryland students that we have a special session so that legislators can pass a responsible package,” Cohen said. “It’s entirely unlikely that [O’Malley] would throw in the towel now … But at the end of the day, it’s the people of Maryland who are at risk right now. The lawmakers at Annapolis have already done the damage they can do.”

Senior staff writer Jim Bach contributed to this report.

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