BACK IN THE DAY WHEN STUDENT ACTIVISM MEANT SOMETHING

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

We dug up this newsletter of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan (MEChA) published in March 1982 by the organization's chapter at the University of Wisconsin, Madison after we received an email from a former school mate living in El Paso.

That student was Wisconsin Law School graduate Mario Caballero, who now practices law in his hometown (He Badgers witnesses). He is pictured addressing the Wisconsin Council on Migrant Labor during their March 20, 1982 meeting to consider endorsing the proposal to grant in-state tuition to former migrants to that state. The majority of migrants in the state originated in Texas and across the Southwest. In those days La Raza was united.

Mario represented MEChA during the Council's meeting and was accompanied by several other members. Partly as a result of their testimony in Madison – where the university and the state capitol are located – the proposal, Assembly Bill 1051, which was then under consideration by the Assembly's Education Committee, was amended and passed.  

Today, the Universities of Wisconsin provide an exception that allows qualifying migrant workers, or their spouses and children, to pay in-state tuition. The University of Michigan, across Lake Michigan,  already provided the exception and the student reps took copies of the legislation to the Wisconsin Assembly.

The specific qualifying criteria for the nonresident tuition exemption include:
Worker Requirement: The prospective student or their parent/guardian must be a migrant worker who has been employed in agricultural labor in Wisconsin.
Frequency: The work must be performed on an annual basis in Wisconsin.
Dependents: Spouses and children of the qualified migrant worker are also eligible for the in-state tuition rate. 

To apply the tuition exception, prospective applicants need to complete a residency application and provide documentation verifying employment history. 

After receiving the email from our former classmate, we dug up a yellowing copy of El Portavoz, the MEChA student newsletter published monthly in Madison, and set him a copy of the front page. Since I (Juan Montoya) was a graduate journalism student, I was the coordinator for its publication. Those were heady days for student activism. Thanks for the memories, Mario. Saludos!.