There’s a reason we don’t celebrate Lyndon Johnson Day. This past Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I spent a lot of time thinking about the civil rights movement.
In the face of repression by segregationists and lethargic responses by the federal government, black people and a multiracial coalition of allies courageously marched, rallied and took direct action to bring national attention to the horrors of racism. Their heroic struggle forced lawmakers, like President Johnson, to advocate equal rights for all.
Right now, higher education is under assault around the globe, and Gainesville is no exception.
When the administration announced in November that they wanted to implement a block tuition system — in which every full-time undergraduate student would pay a flat rate for 15 credit hours, regardless of how many he or she actually takes — students became outraged. Because the proposal would harm working students and hinder participation in extracurricular activities, they decided to stand up and organize a resistance.
Since the spring semester started, I’ve heard a lot about Student Body President Ashton Charles voting against block tuition at the December Board of Trustees meeting. I haven’t heard enough about the flurry of Facebook groups created to oppose block tuition. I haven’t heard enough about the students who pressed the administration to answer hard questions at several town hall meetings last fall. I haven’t heard enough about the thousands of students who signed petitions against the administration’s plan. And I haven’t heard enough about the largest and most direct resistance to block tuition — the three rallies attended by hundreds of students, organized by Students for a Democratic Society and the students from instructor Meggan Jordan’s Social Problems class.
On the same day the Trustees approved block tuition, students rallied together to directly voice their opposition. Several of us met with and addressed members of the board, and we successfully pushed block tuition’s implementation back to fall 2012. I’m not saying Charles didn’t make the right choice in opposing block tuition at the Board of Trustees meeting. She did. I’m saying I don’t think she would have if not for the mass student resistance to block tuition across campus.
If we’re going to stop block tuition once and for all, we need to remember a central lesson of the civil rights movement: Change doesn’t come from the top.
Provost Joe Glover won’t wake up one day with an epiphany that block tuition is bad for students.
Student Government officials alone won’t stop the attack on working students. If we stop block tuition — and I pray we do — it’s the students alone whom we have to thank.
Dave Schneider is a Progress Party senator and member of Students for Democratic Society
