Today Temple University’s President Neil Theobald reached out to students for the second time, urging them to take action on the state budget impasse. Less than an hour later however, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a $30 billion budget bill.
Last week, President Theobald urged the Temple student body to join the fight to give the University the funding it need by sending a pre-written letter to Pennsylvania state legislators. After a response of more than 5,000 emails to state representatives from Temple owls, Theobald again called on the help of students to avoid a financial shortfall of $150 million for the University.
The email, sent out earlier this afternoon asked Temple Students to call elected representatives in the Pennsylvania House and ask them to vote “yes” on Senate Bill 914. As of now the bill has been approved by the House, and if signed by the governor, Temple University will gain $175 million in desperately needed funds. Without the money the University could face a large increase in tuition, layoffs, and service cuts.
Despite the bill being approved by the house in a vote of 31 to 18, with the support of only one democrat, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is threatening to veto the bill because he says it “does not fund our schools.”
Temple is a responsible educational partner of the State and the community by keeping its tuition increase lower than all its peers. Had Temple known that the budget was not going to pass, would the university have charged a higher tuition for FY16?
I recommend cross referencing your numbers and info in the last paragraph of your report (yours are too low for a house vote):
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/bill_votes.cfm?syear=2015&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=914
Also which bill are you referring to in the last paragraph? SB 914? or the State Budget Bill SB 811?