It's about time California students protest tuition hikes
Eric Hill - Opinion Editor
Issue date: 11/23/09 Section: Opinion
State institutions are dependant on state funding, which keep being cut. Expansive growth is no longer possible in these economic conditions. Education no longer has a high return on investment for the state. Therefore the quality of education keeps going down, even though its cost goes up every year (doesn't that sound like health care debate too?).
Students can no longer afford to be taught by tenured professors-they are educated by grad students, adjunct professors and online computer courses. Yet when it comes to materials, instead of using technology to get an e-book, they are assigned mandatory texts costing $100 to $300, which hardly any professor teaches out of.
When it comes to loans, students are forced into unbelievable debt. The school profits at their expense, and actually encourages late graduation by poorly structuring graduation requirements. Can someone please tell me what the hell "Focused Inquiry" is?
It's a 1-credit excuse of a course about nothing that students are mandated to take. The term "focused inquiry" means "thinking hard about finding answers." Even a mandatory course on the history of Richmond would be more educational, or better yet, go back to assigning mandatory English 100, where students were taught high school English for the second or third time in a row.
Where is the campus debate? Where are the students doing sit-ins and marches and protests and some good old-fashioned hell raising? They are in California, because 32 percent is 30 percent too much. Yet here sits VCU, vapid and apathetic, its students complaining about everything under the sun, but no one doing anything.
So here's the call to action. Write to the Commonwealth Times, explain what you think needs to be done, what you think students are lacking. Use this paper as it is meant to be used! Students can advertise with us for next to nothing, and if your cause is about campus activism, we're more than likely to send a reporter.
We will magnify your voice by publishing your opinions, we will connect you to the people you need to talk to and we will make sure your needs are respected as a paying member of the student body.
When University of California students, faculty and staff took a stand against this injustice, the university arrested hundreds of them for trespassing. This and every other university, belongs to the students and the staff that operate it, not the people who own its buildings. We must command our own futures, and it starts by demanding the full measure of what we have paid for.
Students can no longer afford to be taught by tenured professors-they are educated by grad students, adjunct professors and online computer courses. Yet when it comes to materials, instead of using technology to get an e-book, they are assigned mandatory texts costing $100 to $300, which hardly any professor teaches out of.
When it comes to loans, students are forced into unbelievable debt. The school profits at their expense, and actually encourages late graduation by poorly structuring graduation requirements. Can someone please tell me what the hell "Focused Inquiry" is?
It's a 1-credit excuse of a course about nothing that students are mandated to take. The term "focused inquiry" means "thinking hard about finding answers." Even a mandatory course on the history of Richmond would be more educational, or better yet, go back to assigning mandatory English 100, where students were taught high school English for the second or third time in a row.
Where is the campus debate? Where are the students doing sit-ins and marches and protests and some good old-fashioned hell raising? They are in California, because 32 percent is 30 percent too much. Yet here sits VCU, vapid and apathetic, its students complaining about everything under the sun, but no one doing anything.
So here's the call to action. Write to the Commonwealth Times, explain what you think needs to be done, what you think students are lacking. Use this paper as it is meant to be used! Students can advertise with us for next to nothing, and if your cause is about campus activism, we're more than likely to send a reporter.
We will magnify your voice by publishing your opinions, we will connect you to the people you need to talk to and we will make sure your needs are respected as a paying member of the student body.
When University of California students, faculty and staff took a stand against this injustice, the university arrested hundreds of them for trespassing. This and every other university, belongs to the students and the staff that operate it, not the people who own its buildings. We must command our own futures, and it starts by demanding the full measure of what we have paid for.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
GAMARAM
posted 11/24/09 @ 8:39 PM EST
Where are all the Rowdy Rams?
Margeau Graybill
posted 12/06/09 @ 4:02 PM EST
I agree with many things stated in this article; like the fact that colleges should focus on the betterment of their students and faculty rather than the people who own the buildings. (Continued…)
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