Tuition at Arizona universities peaked above the national average, according to a report by the Arizona Republic last month. This is in light of two years of massive budget cuts executed under Gov. Jan Brewer. Using our irresponsible and incompetent legislature as a scapegoat, hyperbolic and destructive rhetoric has been employed by the Arizona Board of Regents and university administrations determined to privatize education at any expense.
It was recently reported that ASU plans to privatize its law school. This means that the law school will receive no state funding, tuition will increase, class sizes will grow and number of online-only classes will rise. When asked at Wednesday’s open forum if he plans to privatize more colleges at ASU, President Michael Crow stressed that the university plans to stick with professional programs.
Crow revealed at Wednesday’s Open Forum that out of ASU’s $2 billion operating budget, only $400 million came from the state. Since privatization most visibly occurs through the movement away from state money toward private funding, it is apparent that most of ASU has already been privatized.
To put things into perspective, tuition and fees at ASU have nearly increased 100 percent over the past five years. In addition to paying more out of pocket, undergraduates have seen an increase in class sizes, in the number of graduate or PhD students teaching upper-division courses, in trivial required classes like ASU 101, in online classes, in excessive mandatory fees (such as meal plans, on-campus living and differential tuition), in unnecessary remodeling (case-in-point, Hassayampa Market) and overall decrease in the quality of our education.
As we are being told to bear the brunt of this economic recession, our family incomes are decreasing, access to substantial grants and scholarships are decreasing, and no matter how many jobs students hold, we can no longer keep up with the costs of attending a four-year public university.
And more students desperately take out private loans, which are notorious for locking students into debt both in life and in death (see my column Oct. 6 “Life comes and goes, loans are forever”).
Meanwhile, departments that don’t generate revenue are seeing massive restructuring and cuts to full-time faculty or staff. One example is in the Mary Lou College of Teaching where students will soon be forced to take two (instead of three) semesters learning to teach and two (instead of one) semesters student teaching
Therefore, ASU saves money by cutting the professors once needed for third-semester classes, requiring students to pay tuition to work uncompensated for over 40 hours a week.
This is simultaneous to when the Council of Presidents (made up of the president at each Arizona university and the president of ABOR) begin to craft, “The Arizona Higher Education Enterprise — Strategic Realignment 2010 Forward,” a proposal that further outlines ways to privatize universities.
When I came to ASU in fall 2007, few people questioned the state’s obligation to fund public universities. In fact, it is mandated in the Arizona constitution that education shall be as nearly free as possible. But as a senior, I have repeatedly witnessed the ASU administration and ABOR backstab students by siding with the Arizona legislature instead of students when shaping the future of our education.
The repercussions of this active privatization are unnerving. Education is being shifted from a right to a privilege. Arizona universities will continue increasing tuition until too many families can no longer consider college to be a viable option based on costs instead of qualifications.
Enough is enough. Students must rise up and take back education. If we don’t demand it, we won’t get it. Complacency is no longer an option.
Rise up and send your real talk to Athena at asalman3@asu.edu
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