Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Sam Dike, president of the Student Government Association at the University of Houston, is a driving force behind a new statewide association of college students.

COLLEGE STATION — College students from across Texas spent the weekend talking about the most serious issues on campus before settling on economic and leadership issues as their priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

To ease students' financial load, they want politicians to freeze tuition rates and exempt textbooks from state sales tax.

"What used to be a $7,500-a-year education is now $11,000," said Eric Garza, a member of the student government at Texas A&M University, which was host to the three-day meeting of the Texas Student Association.

They also plan to lobby to require that students appointed by the governor to university governing boards be nominated by their student government associations — a move intended to make student representatives accountable to other students.

"We have a strong commitment to the students we serve, to leave the university better than we found it as freshmen," said Garza, a senior political science major.

The student association had been dormant for years when student leaders from campuses around the state met in Austin in July and agreed to revive it, saying they wanted to give a voice to the 500,000 students in Texas' public colleges.

Sam Dike, president of the student body at the University of Houston and chairman of the new group, urged his fellow student leaders to rely upon one another for ideas and advice.

"We can be a source of strength," he said. "There are good ideas on other campuses we all can use."

The group — about 70 students from 13 universities, representing all corners of the state — considered a number of issues during a daylong session on Saturday.

Most ideas didn't make the cut.

"We learned about the art of compromise," Travis Miller, a member of the student government association at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, said as the meeting ended on Sunday.

He and other SHSU students supported standardized training for university police officers on every campus.

Other students didn't think that was necessary.

The financial issues and the way in which student regents are chosen drew unanimous support.

Dike was pragmatic.

"There are going to be disagreements, but they shouldn't stop us from working on the issues we agree on," he said. And focusing on issues with a chance of approval will give the group a successful track record, which could translate into more clout in the future, he said.

Miller and the other Huntsville students ultimately agreed.

Financial issues "are huge for students," said Ryan Bridges, another SHSU student. "I had to pay $250 for an accounting textbook."

Some legislators have pledged support for a two-year tuition freeze and a tax break on textbooks, although both issues are likely to depend, in part, on how much state money is available for higher education.

Earlier in the year, state budget writers said Texas could have as much as a $10 billion budget surplus. After Hurricane Ike and the worsening national economy, that's less certain. Legislators won't learn how much money is available until the day before the session begins in mid-January.

Students hope the sheer number of people they represent will bolster their argument.

"It's one thing to go to the Capitol as a university of 17,000 students," Bridges said. "It's another to go (representing) 500,000 students across the state."