Members of the Associated Students of Madison and the Student Labor Action Coalition joined with UW System students in taking the streets Friday in a call to lower the perpetually rising cost of tuition in Wisconsin. Moving from Library Mall to the Capitol, chants from the collective body and a procession of speakers addressed with overwhelming clarity a majority of students’ unhappiness with the direction of higher education in the state.

In the wake of a $250 million cut to the UW System that was introduced in Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2003-05 budget, the state has leaned heavily on students to pick up $150 million of the reduction. Such measures have caused a 37.5 percent increase in tuition over the last two years, leaving few indications that such reliance on students will be curbed any time in the near future.

Friday’s rally hopefully made both the state legislature and Bascom realize students are being severely disenfranchised by the increased financial burden they have been left to deal with. We applaud all organizations involved in Friday’s rally — the organized event was the first in quite some time that dealt with an issue every single student on this campus and across the state is facing.

We must hold special regard for ASM, an organization we have criticized multiple times for being a model of ineptitude. The group’s involvement in Friday’s rally re-instills some of the confidence that had been lost. We hope ASM will continue to seek solutions to problems that plague the entire student body, for it is only when ASM legitimizes itself that both Bascom and the legislature will again take the student body with more than a grain of salt.