Topeka ? Student leaders from the state’s regents universities today delivered 6,500 postcards to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, urging her to help the schools pay for a backlog of repairs.

“Please make a down payment on my future,” the postcards signed by students read.

Sebelius and lawmakers are expected to take up the issue of a reported $727 million worth of repairs and renovations at state universities when the 2007 legislative session starts Jan. 8. The pricetag includes $285 million at KU and KU Medical Center.

In a news conference outside Sebelius’ office, the students told of dangerous breakdowns on their campuses.

Ian Staples, legislative director of the Student Senate at the Kansas Union, mentioned the September incident when a transformer blew at Wescoe Hall.

The students said the Legislature needed to make a downpayment of approximately $180 million – one fourth of the projected need – as part of a multi-year plan to clear up the backlog of repairs.

“The time to act is now,” said Ginger Niemann, a Pittsburg State University senior and chairwoman of the students’ advisory committee to the Kansas Board of Regents.

The regents proposed a tax increase for deferred maintenance during the last legislative session, but that proposal went nowhere.