CWU’s Lobby Day, headed by ASCWU VP of Legislative Affairs Michael Scott, has been rebranded as Cats at the Capitol and is officially scheduled for Jan. 26. More than namesake has been changed. A new format is aimed at increasing effectiveness, attendance and interest.

“The legislators in Olympia see the same lobbyists. They see the same staff members every single day and when when you show up with 100 students who are passionate about issues and want to talk about issues that affect them in their day to day life, the conversation changes,” Scott said.

Cats at the Capitol is the annual lobbying day for CWU students. Each year, students travel to Olympia by the busloads in order to connect and discuss state policy with Washington state senators and legislators.

Registration is open now and closes Jan. 10. Students can register at the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement office. Cats at the Capitol will be a free event for all students.

Though both Scott and ASCWU President Giovanni Severino emphasized their intention to focus on issues coming from CWU students, they expect to showcase certain issues in a greater amount. College affordability and various social justice issues are to be discussed.

One of the advocacies that ASCWU hopes to lead is the effort to freeze tuition in order to prevent it from increasing, as it has been increasing by two percent each year according to Scott. Expanding the state need grant and reducing textbook prices are also goals.

Cats at the Capitol also aims to make Green Dot training more accessible. Green Dot has to do with sexual assault prevention. Severino also mentioned the push for gender neutral bathrooms, which CWU has advocated for highly within the last couple years.

Training sessions for participants will be held in the weeks leading up to the event. This is to teach students how to make their points clear when meeting with legislators. The training sessions will also provide more information regarding the issues.

“The legislators are in such a time crunch. Everyone wants them everywhere so we need to know how to effectively get their attention,” Severino said.

History

According to Scott, Cats at the Capitol, or some iteration thereof, has been happening for the last 20 years.

“Lobby Days have been really productive historically” Scott said, adding “Washington state is the only state to have dropped tuition –ever.”

Aside from tuition, Scott mentioned recent wins for CWU. Two years ago, sexual assault victims were not entitled to the same confidentiality on campus as they would with an off-campus primary care physician, according to Scott. This is no longer the case.

Scott also mentioned the implementation of more drop boxes near multiple Washington Universities including CWU. This helps boost student voter participation.

Last year Scott worked under his predecessor, JR Siperly as CWU’s in-house lobbyist in Olympia. He helped pass several bills in his time there. Among others were HB 2037 and SB5472 which established a disability task force and a greater presence of ballot drop boxes, respectively.  

Scott also made numerous connections with Olympia legislative figures during his time

“All of those bridges I’ve built, I want students to use them as well,” he said, referring to his time spent in Olympia this last winter.