Contestants, today’s $64,000 question (or rather, $2,075,000 question, assuming 25,000 students pay fees) is a very simple one. While at school, what are your priorities?
That really is the question underlying the entire Rally4Talley movement and the $83 indebtedness fee on the table. Now you may not be certain what your priorities are beyond getting through class for three more days until Fall Break, but I can tell you what you already knew: students generally come to a university to get a degree and all the opportunities the education and diploma carry with them. Students’ fee votes should reflect this basic goal.
Consider the alternative uses for this $2,075,000. For starters, we could put it towards our educations. The University has cut classes, increased class sizes and scaled back tutorial services on-campus. We could put this money towards undoing some of that damage, particularly for courses that students need to take in order to graduate on time. Or it could look to build some new space for classes large and small, which may facilitate the demolition of Harrelson Hall (which makes Talley look attractive and modern by comparison).
We could put it towards improving graduate programs. As Jeff Braden, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences put it, great schools didn’t earn their reputation from their undergraduate programs — they have superb graduate programs, which give them national and global renown. You want your degree to count for more when an employer looks at it, especially when it comes down to salary negotiations, right? Having the weight of an outstanding academic and research institution standing behind is what can make that happen, but it would take time to build that reputation. And unlike Talley, you will see that benefit.
Or we may want to consider improving existing student services, particularly those which have a more direct benefit. Two of the big ones are health services and transit. After all, a sick student is one who is not (or at least should not be) in class, and a student who cannot get to campus due to limited personal transportation is one who is going to be repeatedly marked “absent.” And while we may not be able to dramatically expand either system with $2 million and change, we can certainly start to make some improvements. So instead of a hospital on campus and monorail, we could see shorter waiting times to see medical providers and a few more routes with buses that aren’t quite as crowded.
The bottom line is simple. In a time where the economy is still uncertain, particularly when the unemployment rate is at 9.8 percent and the University’s budget is crippled by mandatory cuts from the state, do we really want to start work that does little to benefit current students in the short run and contributes nothing to academics and research over the long run?
The choice is simple. Vote yes for an $83 fee that will have minimal benefits for you as a student in the short and long-term, or vote no and demand that you get something that will benefit you now and give you something better than a bit of pride in a building 30 years from now.
It’s that simple.
