I am writing today to voice my opposition to the creation of any fee for the restoration or expansion of the Reitz Union.
Fees have already risen astronomically in the past few years, while our paychecks have not done so. This, coupled with the crippled economy, has left most graduate students in a precarious situation. Graduate students are already burdened by fees that amount to more than $1,000 a year, roughly 10 to 20 percent of most of our paychecks for the entire year.
We feel that our shouts to get increases in pay have fallen on deaf ears. (Funny how the administration often has money to give the professors raises or to hire new professors but consistently has no money to pay graduate students an increase.) But the whispers coming from the Student Senate, which passed the resolution supporting this pay increase, are being heard. This is wholly unacceptable, especially given the fact that most of the students who voiced opinions at this Senate meeting opposed the fee increase. The Senate wouldn’t even allow for a referendum to see if the Student Body supported paying to renovate and expand the Reitz Union.
The Reitz Union is not in critical need of repair and expansion. What is critical is that the administration do its best to support its graduate students, especially because we are the ones who do the majority of the teaching and research at the university.
