[Bgsa] Student petition asking feds to invest in science

[Carla Essenberg]

Hi Folks,

Student members of the Botanical Society of America have begun a
petition asking federal politicians to invest in science.  The
motivation was the targeting of NSF spending by the new House Majority
Leader's YouCut website
(http://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/Review.htm).  Given the current
enthusiasm by our leaders for reducing government spending, this seems
a good time to remind politicians that there are some things worth
investing in.

If you're interested in signing the petition, you can get to it from
the link below:

http://www.aibs.org/public-policy/news/students_sign_the_open_letter_to_federal_policymakers.html#030000

Carla

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Meyer, Rachel <rmeyer at nybg.org>
Date: Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Subject: [BSAStudents] Sign the petition by BSA students asking for
America to invest in science!
To: BsaStudents at lists.botany.org



Dear BSA students,

Over the past several months, a group of students started working on a
letter in defense of NSF that was a response to Cantor,  Smith, and
the YouCut program that targeted NSF as "questionable spending". This
letter has since grown into a nation-wide petition for students to
participate in.  As Obama said in his State of the Union address
yesterday, America needs to invest in science and strengthen our
education system as well as research if it wants to stay competitive
and innovative.  Statistics on the state of education in the US are
astounding and demonstrate that we are slipping away from having a
leading edge; in fact, most Americans are missing many basic science
and math skills.

While to us in the BSA, science seems like a very worthy investment
for this country, that perspective is not shared by everyone in
congress.  We have modified the "Defense of NSF" letter to be a short
and direct message that investing in science research will strengthen
education and innovation in this country.  The American Institute of
Biological Sciences (AIBS) has graciously helped put the letter online
and make it easy for students all over the country to sign on. Once
signatures have been gathered, the document, then heavy with
signatures, will be sent to members of congress.  AIBS will help us
reach out to 200 societies to sign the letter, but we need to see YOUR
signatures and we need for you to send this message on to other
students. If you are part of other scientific societies I encourage
you to also reach out to them.  This initiative was started by you,
and can be strengthened by you.  Marian and I will also contact
society presidents and student representatives !
!
to ask for their participation.

The link to sign the letter is here:
http://www.aibs.org/public-policy/news/students_sign_the_open_letter_to_federal_policymakers.html#030000

The original Cantor and Smith letter is here:
http://botany.org/BSA_Students-NSF-12162010.pdf

We thank you for your time and for your consideration of this request.
 If there are other issues that students would like to pursue with
petitions or open letters, please utilize this listserv.  We look
forward to seeing the list of signatures grow so we have a better
chance to  influence our country.

Sincerely,
Rachel Meyer

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-- 
Carla Essenberg
PhD Candidate
Department of Biology
University of California, Riverside