It's about time California students protest tuition hikes
Eric Hill - Opinion Editor
Issue date: 11/23/09 Section: Opinion
For far too long students of this generation have been breaking under the strain of a bloated state education system. Every year the national average cost of tuition is raised double or triple the interest rate.
It has become a tool used to make decisions that hardly benefit university students. When the University of California attempted to use that tool to pay for their poor governance, students took a stand. So should you.
Last week the University of California regents said "OK" to a 32 percent tuition hike. according to CNN. The tuition increase represents a little more than $1,800 per student, raising roughly $500 million to cover a shortfall in the budget. This shortfall comes from the state's burgeoning debt, which is essentially handed down from more poor policy making at the state level.
Last year VCU raised the tuition 9.4 percent. This year it was 5.2 percent. VCU will also cut 91 positions this year. While Virginia's universities are not in such dire straits as California's, the challenges being faced there are the same being faced here.
They represent a clash between the university leadership's idea of a fair price for education, and students who are forced to pay a bill that gets larger each year, for reasons that are not expressly indicated.
Our new President gets paid $488,500 annually, with $120,000 in allowances, and a signing bonus of $275,000. His wife also gets a job paying a $34,000 annual salary for a 20-hour-a-week position as the VCU international alumni relations liaison.
Not to say the President doesn't deserve his salary, or his wife doesn't deserve a job, but where is the commitment to the students? VCU's enrollment has grown by 38 percent in a decade. Its commitments have been to expansion at any cost to students and academics.
This is the same story all over the United States. Higher education has become a business, a business of providing the cheapest product at the highest price, without regard for long-term goals. It has now become another bursting bubble-its services spread thin to keep inflating itself.
It has become a tool used to make decisions that hardly benefit university students. When the University of California attempted to use that tool to pay for their poor governance, students took a stand. So should you.
Last week the University of California regents said "OK" to a 32 percent tuition hike. according to CNN. The tuition increase represents a little more than $1,800 per student, raising roughly $500 million to cover a shortfall in the budget. This shortfall comes from the state's burgeoning debt, which is essentially handed down from more poor policy making at the state level.
Last year VCU raised the tuition 9.4 percent. This year it was 5.2 percent. VCU will also cut 91 positions this year. While Virginia's universities are not in such dire straits as California's, the challenges being faced there are the same being faced here.
They represent a clash between the university leadership's idea of a fair price for education, and students who are forced to pay a bill that gets larger each year, for reasons that are not expressly indicated.
Our new President gets paid $488,500 annually, with $120,000 in allowances, and a signing bonus of $275,000. His wife also gets a job paying a $34,000 annual salary for a 20-hour-a-week position as the VCU international alumni relations liaison.
Not to say the President doesn't deserve his salary, or his wife doesn't deserve a job, but where is the commitment to the students? VCU's enrollment has grown by 38 percent in a decade. Its commitments have been to expansion at any cost to students and academics.
This is the same story all over the United States. Higher education has become a business, a business of providing the cheapest product at the highest price, without regard for long-term goals. It has now become another bursting bubble-its services spread thin to keep inflating itself.
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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