TCC students pressed state leaders on issues such as funding, immigration, diversity, equity and inclusion during Community College Day Feb. 3 at the Texas Capitol Building in Austin.
Students from each campus met with some of their state senators and representatives along with their aides.
The group was taken by bus to the Capitol. Once there, students had a chance over breakfast to mingle with other community college students from across the state.
Before the event, they made appointments to meet with individual legislators. A coordinator for student activities chaperoned each student group.
A group of students met with Rep. David Lowe, R-North Richland Hills District 91, one of the newest legislators in the session that started last month. TCC board trustee Shannon Wood and on-call coordinator of special projects Bill Lace also attended the meeting.
“Meeting them in person feels real,” SE student Rosemary Adio said. “It’s no longer on the website. It’s no longer on TV. So, you know, you can now put a face to the person and probably relate with that person.”
Lowe, a DFW native and retired military police officer, told the students about his priorities for this legislative session. They include securing the border and stopping child sexual abuse in the education system.
He said one of his top priorities is to protect children in schools and on issues like Senate Bill 14, which bans gender-affirming care for transgender children.
“Ninety percent of the gender transitions start with psychological transitions hearing so not to be too graphic,” Lowe said. “But have you ever heard of a packer? No, that is a makeshift penis that will go in a diaper so that a little girl can think she’s a little boy at a very young age.”
Adio asked Lowe about child separation in the wake of recent ICE raids, detaining migrant parents with American-born children. She also asked how to motivate young Americans to care about achieving the American dream.
“Somebody’s gonna get the short end of the stick, right,” Lowe said. “But we have tons and tons of violence from this. When I worked at Collin County Jail, a majority of the illegal immigrants that ICE holds were there for sexual violence against kids, continuous sexual assault of a child under 14. So we are leaving our populations vulnerable.”
Adio said she felt unheard and didn’t leave the conversation with any information or advice to give the youth she works with. “I felt like he had a made-up response to the question,” Adio said. “He didn’t really address what I wanted.”
SE student Sela Vo, who also asked about immigration, felt that while she respects Lowe’s opinion, there could have been room for a more nuanced discussion.
“I believe that if they want people to come in legally, maybe making the process to gaining legal citizenship should be made a little bit easier, and in turn, that could help their concerns with coming here legally,” Vo said.
A group of South Campus students met with Rep. Nicole Collier, House D-Fort Worth District 95. They asked about House Bill 8, Senate Bill 17 funding, DEI and the student employees’ work-study program.
Lauryn Sample, who is on the Black Student Union executive board at South Campus, was especially concerned about the cultural censorship that is creating on college campuses.
“It’s really just so unfortunate,” Sample said. “Because it’s really dimming our motivation to fight to be able to be black.”
Collier said that SB 17 and bills like it are designed to make things difficult, and there isn’t clarity due to the conflicting messaging from the government.
“We need clarity, but that is incumbent upon us to demand it,” Collier said. “That means you got to get engaged. Keep pressing, you know, find out where that line is. You know, the line is moving, then find out where it is.”
During the discussion about the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers targeting illegal immigrants on college campuses, students brought up that some people are choosing to skip classes rather than risk deportation or their family members being deported if they drop them off at school.
“We’re literally living in uncertain times,” Collier said. “And when it comes to that, I don’t even have a way to reassure you. I don’t have those words to say it’s OK. This is what you do.”
Not all the students could speak with their representative because it was the start of the new session, and committee members had not been assigned yet. That left some offices closed, and some students could meet with aides to ask questions about their representative’s policy leanings.
Asia Barfield, Leslie Zacarias and Madelin Alvarenga from SE Campus expressed their frustration at not getting the whole experience.
“I don’t know what the circumstances were,” Zacarias said. “ But I’m pretty sure a lot of us did have that problem of not actually talking to the representative or the senator. So, I think maybe for the future, that’s something that they could plan out.”
Barfield was supposed to meet Representative Chris Turner from D-Grand Prairie District 101, which covers SE Campus.
“I would say it was a bummer that Chris Turner actually wasn’t there, but nonetheless, his team represented him very well,” Barfield said. “Despite him not being there, they were able to get his ideals across and explain the kind of bills that he passes. So, all in all, I was pretty confident with the answers that I received.”
Students said meeting their state senators and representatives gave them a chance to have conversations that they would not otherwise have had.
“You never know the impact you’re going to make on these representatives, and it’s wonderful that we have that opportunity,” Vo said.
