Associated Students of ASU, our student government, won't be making any efforts to lobby against a proposed 44 percent tuition increase on behalf of some 50,000 of us looking for any glimmer of hope.
Unfortunately, though, neither The State Press nor ASASU President Mike Leingang is prepared to tell you just how our student representatives have pleaded on our behalf - mainly because they haven't.
Instead, Leingang and ASASU are currently conducting a survey of ASU students to determine how we would like the University to spend our extra $1,000 a year. In essence, they have given up keeping tuition down and given ASU and the Arizona Board of Regents the green light to wring as much cash from our wallets as they wish.
"A tuition raise is coming regardless of what any of us does," Leingang said Wednesday afternoon. "There's just no way we're not going to get a significant tuition increase."
Try telling that to business freshman Chris Eibl, who suggested in Monday's State Press what so many of us believe would be, at the very least, a good starting point for Leingang, as he and ASASU twiddle their thumbs.
"I would prefer a petition to prevent the tuition increase," said Eibl, opposed to a survey that's posing as a white flag.
As much as Eibl and the rest of us would like to see ASASU fight the good fight, Leingang says gathering a petition is a lost cause.
"Taking a petition [to the Regents] would be fairly worthless," Leingang contends. And he's probably right.
But what if a petition signed by thousands of ASU students, backed by the prominent community leaders that college politicians like Leingang are well-associated with, was presented to the Regents? Surely then, ASU and the Regents would have to take notice.
"Who do you know [among community leaders] that isn't supporting a tuition increase?" Leingang rhetorically responded to the suggestion.
Well then, how about ASASU uses its persuasive powers of politicking to keep tuition down? Leingang would have to admit that after the fall semester he and the gang just survived, someone in ASASU is well-equipped with a silver tongue.
Ah, yes. Maybe that's the rub with ASASU.
After the embarrassment of the Brian Buck porn scandal, the alleged e-mail threats Oubai Shahbandar dished out to fellow ASASU colleagues to keep his girlfriend in office, the resignations, the chaos and - most importantly - the miniscule voter turnout ASASU mustered just to keep itself on the payroll, maybe the powers-that-be have realized that ASASU is no force to be reckoned with.
If that truly is the case - that ASU students have no legitimate representation - then perhaps Leingang is right.
All hope is lost.
