Recap of 2025 Huskies on the Hill
Huskies on the Hill gave students the opportunity to advocate for student grants and supportive legislation.
By: Michaela Ely
Two buses of UW Tacoma students and buses from the UW Seattle and UW Bothell campuses made their way to the state capitol on Feb. 3 to lobby for legislation that will benefit students.
Huskies on the Hill is a tri-campus effort with students coming from all three campuses and being represented by their respective student governments. The student governments for all three campuses and UW’s graduate school are ASUW, ASUWB, ASUWT and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.
Although 100 UWT students were expected to attend the event, weather conditions reduced the confirmed number of students to 68. ASUWT members said this was the university’s largest turnout since before the pandemic. Across all three campuses, the total number of students registered for the event was just over 400.
“This has probably been one of the best years that we have definitely had since COVID, if not for a while at UW. I think the tri-campus effort really worked out for the better this year. I think all three campuses and all four student governments really worked hard on it, which definitely helped with our outreach and planning,” ASUWT Director of Legislative Affairs Ben Brown told The Ledger.
The day began with students meeting with legislators, speaker sessions at the Washington Student Association or just exploring the capital. Students were organized into groups partially based on their legislative district so they would have the opportunity to speak directly with their legislators.
“There was definitely some trial and error, some lessons learned and some growing pains with everything. I think with how big this collaboration was, I think there is definitely some stuff to work on, especially with the planning and the scheduling, stuff like that. But I think overall it seemed like people were able to show up to the meetings we set up for them,” Brown said.
The priorities for this year’s Huskies on the Hill from ASUWT included expanding the Washington College Grant, advocating for a basic needs program for UWT students that will provide expanded resources for food near campus and a bill to address housing insecurity. Another is the expansion of resources and accommodations for students with disabilities and a requirement for professors to provide make-up opportunities for military-affiliated students.?
One meeting that wasn’t limited to a particular student group and instead encouraged as many UWT students to attend as possible was a meeting with Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins from the 27th legislative district. This district includes UWT within its boundaries.
In this meeting, members of ASUWT immediately brought up the WA College Grant as the first priority, however, Speaker Jinkins brought up the $12 billion deficit in the state budget, saying that because of this, it will be basically impossible to pass any new legislation that would cost the state money.
80 percent of the state budget is mandatory spending, meaning everything outside of that can be cut from the budget, including further funding for higher education.
Huskies on the Hill ended with a rally on the steps of the Legislative Building, featuring speakers from all of the UW student governments. Also in attendance was Representative Osman Salahuddin, an UW alumni and former student body president.
Senator Drew Hansen and Governor Bob Ferguson also made an appearance. All three of the speakers from the House of Representatives, Senate and Executive Office said that they would continue to support higher education.
While Huskies on the Hill wasn’t entirely successful in terms of getting every piece of legislation passed, it was a success in terms of turnout and collaboration between all three campuses. To get more updates on what legislation may be passed coming out of Huskies on the Hill, follow ASUWT on Instagram.?
