OSU students rally for tuition freeze
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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Dozens of Oregon State University students rallied at the Memorial Union Quad on Monday with a message for Oregon lawmakers: "Don't raise our tuition."
“The students united will never be defeated," chanted students, holding signs and megaphones in the Quad Monday afternoon, "the students united will never be defeated."
The Associated Students of Oregon State University organized the rally on February 4, 2013, because it is the first day the state legislature convenes in Salem for 2013.
“Every year, bureaucrats spend more money on overpaid salaries, useless programs and fancy pants new buildings that we’re never going to get to use," said Vice President of the ASOSU Dan Cushing. "Every year politicians talk big on education, and we elect them and they turn their backs on us and vote to fund things like prisons.”
State lawmakers decide how much funding will go to higher education in Oregon.
Students at the rally are calling for a "freeze" on any future tuition hikes, and they are asking OSU administrators to join their fight.
“So we really think that this urging to call for a tuition freeze today is premature," said Vice President of University Relations Steve Clark on Monday. "It really is not in keeping with what was agreed to by student leaders.”
After Oregon lawmakers cut funding to higher education, the State Board of Higher Education voted to raise in-state tuition at Oregon University System campuses. Administrators at OSU then raised tuition 6.9 percent for the 2011-2013 biennium, a $432 increase from the 2011-2012 academic year.
Clark said current in-state tuition for a full time student at OSU is estimated at $6,660, $1,350 less than at the University of Oregon and $4,000 less than at the University of Washington.
All schools or at least all Public Schools and Universities are in trouble because they have priced themselves into a corner. They have failed to keep pace with the very people that provide them with their lavish benefits and huge salaries. The average wage earner, who pays taxes for these schools can't even afford to go to an athletic event, let alone take his or her own family to one, it is simply to costly. Isn't it ironic that the very people that are making all this happen are the ones that can't take advantage of any of it. Now who do you suppose figured all this out. Well I could tell you, but it would only make half the people mad, and the other half saying , I tried to tell you. In the last 30 to 40 years it hasn't been about the children, that is a hint. Figure it out folks, be honest and independant in your thinking and you will come to see why all this is happening. Then, and only then will you see that it is time to act.
The costs are increasing for two reasons; first, it's the huge increase in administration costs and overhead. Does any university need departments such as Extended Studies Department at PSU, where that crook Mike Burton was Vice Provost, though nothing in his background indicated that he knew anything about education, the Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence, the Center for Technology in Education, or the huge run up in athletic department executives or the U of O President's staff? What is the point of creating this nonsense if doing so increases the cost and thereby making it impossible to attend Oregon public universities?
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Second, the massive increase in debt due to the building projects going on at all Oregon public universities. Student debt is the collateral that backstops the public bonds needed to build Student Recreation Centers, which the U of O student body ratified in order to fund over $100 million in renovations, or the nearly $100 million that the U of O administrators want so as to refurbish the Student Memorial complex. Projects such as these are nothing but pork for construction companies and Wall Street investment houses who will make fortunes from the unconscionable and completely useless increase in public debt that does nothing to improve academics at any of these schools.
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The people of the state, in general, and the student body and alumni, in particular, have played their roles in the mammoth increase in tuition. The students because they're too lazy to become involved in their own education, the alumni because they refuse to stop attending and paying for athletic events, the public because they're too brain dead to realize that public education cannot be funded properly if they refuse to become politically motivated to do something about it. The corruption at public universities exists because most of us have lost sight of what a state university is supposed to do, that is, educate generations of its citizens, not entertain and distract them with uniforms, football games, and marketing.
The legislatiure is the wrong target. The State of Oregon is only providing 7% of higher education funding. The Board of Higher Education is responsible for approving the double-digit increases in tuition. The students should be picketing the tenured faculty and administrators who are being supported in the style to which they have become accustomed.Â
 @hewhoo The OSU student body has been approaching their faculty and administrators and many of them are on board with the cause but how much can they really do? And the problem with that also lies with the fact that this rally is not just for the students of Oregon State University. It is for the University of Oregon, Portland State, Western Oregon, and all of the other publicly funded colleges and universities. Oregon State's Daily Barometer said it best: "The state has continued to contribute less and less to higher education over the years, to the point where the state is now paying more for prisons than it is for schools. The state spends about $30,000 per prisoner yearly, while the stateâs contribution per student at its two major research universities has declined to about $4,331, making Oregon 46th in the nation in terms of per-student contributions to higher education. This is unacceptable, especially because of the new 40-40-20 mandate that desires to have 40 percent of the population educated with a bachelorâs degree or better by 2025. University officials will tell you that the increase in tuition is beyond their control, and will point to the diminishing investment the state makes in higher education, and they are right to a certain point. The university has also done little to keep costs under control, having embarked on one new capital construction project after another, and continuing to add staff to a bloated administration. We demand the university rein in costs in order to keep tuition down for the very reason this institution exists, to educate students." Article:http://www.dailybarometer.com/wear-the-square-1.2972095#.URBaUjmRjww Tuition has become an outrageous expense that has many 18-22 year olds wondering if it is even worth it anymore.Â
 @Celiz33  @hewhoo It isn't worth it. The NY FED released data that indicated that 12% of student loans are in default, but the actual rate is well over 20% due to a two year deferral which allows students to put off default for awhile. But even the FED has to admit that if you can't make payments on 40K, what makes anyone think that you'll make those payments when the debt climbs to 50k or more? The interest isn't forgiven, it keeps compounding. Point being that we're in a Depression and jobs, much less careers, don't exist, not even for college graduates. It's time that all of us start to grow up and stop believing the garbage spewed by the universities, student loan debt is not "good" debt, but, instead, it's the worst kind because it has little if any consumer protection. Stop thinking that college is a place you go to grow up, it's a place to go into debt...
 @hewhoo @Celiz33 "The OSU student body has been approaching their faculty and administrators and many of them are on board with the cause but how much can they really do?" The increase in salary and benefits expenses come to mind. The now retired Professor I had in Law School in 1969-71 was in the top-20 of PEBB retirement recipients when those figures were released. Those retirements benefits were based on ever-increasing salaries.Â
 @hewhoo True. But I don't think salaries/benefits nearly scratch the surface of this issue as whole. And I wasn't saying that the legislature is the only one to blame. OSU along with the other universities can definitely make some cuts but regardless to where the action takes place, one needs to happen. And the facts that government grants/support have decreased are there.  http://www.wearthesquare.com/the-facts/  The students raise a point that has needed to be addressed for a while now and an issue that effects most, if not all, of the United States.