Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, most of you know that there has been a lot of drama centered around the recent decision of the UC Board of Regents to increase tuition fees by over 30% in the next year. At UCLA where the November 19th meeting was held, students gathered to protest the largely unpopular vote. Fifteen people were arrested or cited total there, a rather small number compared to the slew of over 50 students arrested on campus at my own school, UC Davis.
During a two day period, protesters marched around campus holding signs, chanting their disgust with the fee hike. They settled in Mrak Hall (the main administration building) where they succesfully managed to set up a meeting with the Student Affairs vice chancellor and the campus budget director to discuss the issues. When 5 o’clock rolled around it was announced that the building was closed for the night and everyone would have to leave. The majority did, however more than a few pesky students decided to give the officers problems. In all, 52 students were arrested for tresspassing and taken to the Yolo County Jail for the night.
Many people seem to believe that these protests are a good thing. People are excited about getting involved and standing up for what they believe in, sticking it to the man. That’s all fine and dandy to me in theory; but not when you are protesting against the wrong people, causing even more problems that our schools should not have to deal with right now.
The fee increases are NECESSARY. For over two years the UC system has been receiving millions of dollars in cuts forcing them to lay off faculty, cut classes, enroll less students, and impose other difficult measures. If schools aren’t being properly funded it is impossible go on as usual. If something isn’t done soon about the poor state of funding for colleges, schools are going to fall into a hole so deep that they will never be able to climb out. The standard of education at a university level will fall. It will no longer mean the same thing to have a degree from UC Berkeley because they will have had to cut so many programs, stop spending money on research and get rid of so much faculty that the state of the art education UCs once had will be no more.
Students who are upset apparently don’t understand what is at stake. These students also are forgetting or unaware that the UCs have what’s called the “Blue and Gold” program that will cover all fees for those whose families make less than 70K a year. That means that over 1/3 of students are eligible for full financial aid: a large number of the people protesting. Not only that but the entire financial aid system is being expanded to help even more people than ever. Those students who don’t qualify have no right to complain whatsoever because that means they can sure as hell afford an extra couple thousand dollars for their education.
We are in a recession. The piss-poor management at the state and federal levels are failing our country and it is affecting everyone. Universities now receive half of the support they recieved in 1991, and unless we address this huge problem in academic funding it will only get worse. Because schools aren’t getting enough help from the state they need to take whatever means necessary to keep universities at a high level of functioning; if that means increasing tuition then we need to bite the bullet and handle it in a productive way.
In order to start fixing the damage, we all need to start getting involved at the ballots. Start by writing letters to your representatives telling them your disgust and how you want it fixed. Research candidates for elected positions and vote for the ones who care about education and are willing to make it a priority. It is important for students to be politically active, but more importantly to be politically mature. Stop making the problems worse and start actually taking control of your education.
Protesting universities themselves or the people on the Board of Regents, who have done a good job to date, is not going to help anything but rather make everyone’s jobs more difficult when they are already facing challenges. The Regents don’t want to impose a fee increase. They aren’t going to benefit personally from it. They understand what will happen if we don’t get that extra money and they are responding accordingly.
So to all the protestors out there, PLEASE stop wasting your time getting mad at the people on the university level and start directing your outrage to the state and federal governments who are the ones fucking everything up in the first place.
You know, when I read about this stuff, I knew I was semi-bothered by what was going on but couldn't put my finger on why. You hit it on the head. College students can be a passionate bunch, but their passion is often misguided.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is the state's problem, and I also think that a UC education is still one of the best values around, but man, it ain't what it used to be. The problem is, how often do fees go DOWN? I fear that this will only perpetuate the divide of power. The rich can always afford to go to college. But what about the middle and lower class? Stuff like this makes me think there won't BE a middle class very much longer.
You're right, fees probably won't ever go down, but what other choice is there? Everything they have done so far to save money isn't enough. The increase will close the over half a billion dollar gap that they are facing right now, and they are asking the state for more money.
ReplyDeleteAgain, the people who can't afford it are covered...even families who make up to 180k/year will get help.