Last year, schools in New Jersey faced unprecedented budget cuts. Student leaders rallied to keep the cuts from being too deep, and won some minor concessions. Yet at the end of the day, higher education was hit hard. In the wake of this setback, student leaders realized they needed to organize on a more ongoing basis to prevent future cuts and solve New Jersey’s serious problem with capacity. New Jersey exports more college-ready high school graduates to attend college in other states because they simply don’t have enough room in their universities.

Student Trustees from New Jersey’s nine state colleges and universities have formed the Garden State Student Association to network student leaders and provide a unified student voice. This year, they plan to advocate for higher education funding and are planning voter registration efforts in the future. The SET Project has been advising Student Trustees Alex Habib and Matthew Browne from Rowan University, and Andrew Klimkowski from Richard Stockton, as they lead the effort.