A lot of people are upset following last Friday’s news that the University of Wisconsin System ended last school year with $1 billion to spare. Normally a money surplus is a good thing, but this raises a puzzling question. Why is tuition going up if the university is rolling in Benjamins? The UW system explained that it needs extra money in case of unforeseen expenses or research funding shortages. This is understandable, but it sure as hell doesn’t explain why our tuition rises every year. In response to the surplus, students, UW leaders, state legislators and Gov. Scott Walker have called for a tuition freeze and I completely agree. Tuition is way too high and certainly should not be going up.
I understand that as a college student I am approaching the issue of tuition from a position of bias, just as a chicken cannot discuss KFC objectively. But neither, for that matter, can Colonel Sanders. In fact, the funny thing about the relationship between humans and chickens is that both of the involved parties have quite a bias on the issue. Humans have something to gain from the killing and eating of chickens, namely their delectable juiciness. Chickens on the other hand, generally, I would imagine, prefer not to be cooked and eaten. Despite the obvious disagreement, countless chickens are eaten by humans every day. This is because the decision regarding the fate of chickens is ultimately in the hands of humans and, let’s be honest, chickens are delicious.
As students, we don’t want to pay extraordinarily high tuition rates. The university, however, has something to gain from charging them. Ultimately, the amount of money we have to pay to attend college will be decided by the people we’re paying. The more they charge, the more gold they can pile up in a cave somewhere guarded by a dragon or whatever it is they do with surplus money.
I’m going somewhere with this chicken thing. Bear with me. Spend one day rooting through the garbage at any restaurant and you’ll realize the disgusting amount of food that people waste. Consequently, much of it is chicken. Let’s imagine for a minute that chickens are all-in-all not overly concerned with their own lives and accept the fact that their entire purpose on Earth is little more than laying eggs and being deep fried. Even so, they would not be at all happy to discover how much of their sacrifice goes to waste. Why should a chicken subject himself to the degrading ordeal of being beheaded and cooked when he’ll just end up in the trash because some four-year-old kid suddenly decided he doesn’t like Chicken McNuggets? In the same way, why should I put myself in crippling debt when the university doesn’t even need my money?
Education is one of the most important public issues in any society. Education is what creates entrepreneurs and world leaders and great scholars. It should not be a luxury. It should not be limited to only those who can afford it. It should not be a financial sacrifice. With higher education as it is today, students are essentially told, “Sure you can receive the opportunity to pursue your dreams and receive the tools and resources to achieve your full potential and contribute it to society, but you have to pay us tens of thousands of dollars a year.”
The worst part is that with the availability of information nowadays, we aren’t even paying for the knowledge. We’re putting ourselves in horrible debt for a piece of paper that certifies that we paid a fortune and took a couple tests. I have a friend who goes to a technical school. He has several hours of class each night and is always doing homework. After two years of working his butt off he’ll receive a technical degree. I, on the other hand have three hours of class a day and virtually no homework. After four years of watching Netflix and browsing Reddit I’ll have a BA. The difference is that I’m paying way more just for a more respected piece of paper. Anyone can work hard and learn and become a master of their field, but only the people who pay can be recognized for it.
Just like the way a species must reproduce to survive, an institution must make money. Universities are expensive to operate and we can’t expect to attend such a great one for any small amount. The university, in turn, should not expect us to pay more and more each year when it is sitting on a gold-plated toilet.
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