By snoadmin
The California Master Plan, also known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960, brought state public universities together with a common goal — to provide an affordable option for all who seek a college education. But lately it’s like having cereal without milk, turkey with no bread, or being thirsty when no water is available.
One purpose of public universities was to promote a higher educated society by giving more opportunities to minority and low-income households.
Last week, the Daily Forty-Niner reported Cal State Long Beach has the least amount of students who graduate in debt, although a third of us leave owing through our noses. That’s good news for two-thirds of our community.
The same article quotes an e-mail from CSULB President F. King Alexander, in which he expressed that, in the face of hard economic times, other universities have hiked student tuition and fees to cover costs, “I am pleased to say that we have fought hard to maintain our affordability…”
Most of us rely on financial aid, grants, scholarships, loans, working two and three jobs, or mom and dad to get through college. This year alone this campus enrolled approximately 38,000 students, roughly a 10 percent increase from 2007. CSULB may be the cheapest California State University campus, but there are still a lot of us here struggling to make it.
What exactly is the motivation of telling us “It’s all good” in the midst of blocking transfer students, tightening admissions requirements, fewer professors and overcrowded classrooms?
Is this an attempt to soften the blow of perhaps another raise in our fees? Yes, is the short answer. It seems that each time our administration plays the still-the-most-affordable-campus-in-the-Western-Hemisphere card we are about to be jabbed in the wallet by a new fee.
Maybe we are being too critical of our administration. Maybe they did want to just tell us, “We have done our job my keeping the costs low.” But maybe we are tired of hearing that. Maybe it’s about time for them to tell us what they are planning on doing to help the thousands of children who still can’t afford higher education.
It is time for administrators to stop listening to their public relations people and placing trust in the financial reports in U.S. World News & Report and the Princeton Review. Those reports are misleading because they don’t take into account the cost of living in California when defining “college affordability.”
They ignore inflation and don’t consider the fact that we’re in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Nothing is mentioned about the budget crisis in California, which will probably mean more cuts to higher education — which means more student fees on the horizon.
The point here is we have a system that is on a fast track to failure; something like 13,000 students graduate with debt, while administration tells us we are in great shape because we are not as bad off as the other guys.
The cost of living in California is among the highest, unemployment rates are shooting through the ceiling, classes are full and thousands of students are not getting what they need. But it’s OK because it could be worse?
CSULB services a growing population of minority students, who typically need aid, and if our prediction is realized and another hike in fees is coming, or something similar, yet again this particular group of people will suffer.
Administrators have no place in the Alliance for the CSU campaign. It’s starting to give the impression they use it as an inside edge to find the best way to spin us. That’s like having management at a labor union rank-and-file meeting helping with strategic planning against management.
It’s been made clear that the students at CSULB are just seen as walking dollar signs.
There is a pattern here. Every time the spun words, “We are still the most affordable, blah, blah” we can expect to pay a little more in the future. The tired, mechanical sales pitch has precipitated every fee increase for the past three years or more.
Saying “CSULB is still the most affordable yada, yada,” is like telling us we can have all the cereal in the world we want — but we’re going to have to find our own milk.
Your name, you sound like one of those racists that always shout, “If you can’t understand the language, get the hell out.” It’s too bad the people who were the original inhabitants didn’t use that same mentality. You’d probably be living in one of those socialist countries you poke.
I’d be stoked to go to a socialist country and attend their university for next to nothing. That way it would be other people carrying the burden of improvements for the sports program I really could care less about instead of me. Damn American citizenship…
Get over the fact that you aren’t owed anything including coming out of school debt free. If you want free, then go to a socialist country and let’s see how much whining you do there. Be appreciative that you have the oppurtunity to attend this institution, or else go to some other university. But above all quit you whing because it’s getting old.