On Friday, Tigert Hall was alive with activism. Students marched through the doors and demanded to meet with UF President Bernie Machen about the recent 15 percent tuition hikes. Machen agreed to meet with several organizers from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) later this week, where we intend to lay out our arguments for affordable tuition.
That's why we were disturbed by the editorial in yesterday's Alligator, which condemned SDS for organizing students and ridiculed the entire idea of resisting tuition hikes.
We are always amazed at the handful of cynics who point out that Florida universities are among the most affordable in the country, as if that's a bad thing.
The affordability of outstanding public universities, like UF, is the reason that students of any economic background can receive a college education and hope to compete in the ever-worsening job market.
Our campaign against tuition hikes isn't about finding something to protest. It's about making sure that cost never prevents the best and brightest in Florida from joining the Gator Nation.
It's alarming to hear from our student-run newspaper that we have no right to be here at UF. At one time lawmakers told women, African-Americans, Latinos and others that they had no right to attend public universities.
Last Friday, SDS proclaimed on the steps of Tigert Hall that poor and working students have the same right to be Gators as wealthy students. Future Gators will decide whether we were right to fight for affordable education, not the opinion of the Alligator's opinions editor, a political communication graduate student, seeking to please the administration.
We all grew up thinking that if we worked hard in school and stayed out of trouble, we could get a quality education in Florida without breaking the bank. Times have changed.
Since Bright Futures switched to dispensing scholarship money at a flat rate instead of by percentage, the top award only covers 53.5 percent of tuition cost, and FMS awards - formerly "75 percent Bright Futures" - covers just over 40 percent of tuition cost.
Students aren't invited to the meetings where the administration makes important decisions about our ability to attend college - we must demand such meetings, and SDS uses rallies to achieve those demands.
Yesterday's editorial had one thing right: We all need to tighten our belts during this economic crisis.
Student tuition has increased by 15 percent every year since 2009. Bright Futures barely affects our final tuition bill, and Pell Grants are drying up with every compromise brokered in Washington. More students than ever before are picking up full-time jobs just to stay in school and pay rent. Our belts can't get any tighter.
On the other hand, how is administration tightening its belt? Why is there no talk of pay cuts for UF President Bernie Machen, whose $415,000 salary is bolstered by annual $285,000 bonuses? Next year, Machen is scheduled to receive an extra $400,000 "long-term performance bonus." Why are students wrong to call that unacceptable?
Why can't we tap into the $1.5 billion endowment - the largest of any university, public or private, in the state of Florida - to make up for the budget shortfall?
Here's a question: Why did UF drop five notches in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report college rankings to 58 - down from 47 in 2009 - despite our tuition increasing 15 percent every year, ostensibly to improve the quality of our education? Maybe the real problem is the administration's poor management of the tuition we already pay, like spending $35,000 on statues around campus.
Let's force the administration to answer these questions before they hike our tuition 15 percent every year until 2019.
Yesterday's editorial asked if UF should be allowed to determine its own standards for entry and payment. Both SDS and the Editorial Board agree, but we have different conceptions of who makes UF what it is.
For some, UF is the Board of Trustees, the wealthy alumni, and the president that these powerful groups selected to oversee the university.
For SDS and our allies, UF is the Spanish junior renting a canoe with friends by Lake Wauburg. UF is the pre-med student drinking coffee to stay awake in Library West for their orgo midterm. UF is the active student organizations that make campus vibrant, like the Black Student Union, Islam on Campus and Gator Robotics. And UF is the student who works 40 hours a week to pay tuition and still manages to hold down a 3.8 GPA.
All SDS wants is for these people - the real UF - to have a say when it comes to tuition.
Robbey Hayes, Chrisley Carpio and Michela Marinazzi
Students for a Democratic Society
Gainesville Chapter
