Amanda Brail – News Reporter –
Teachers, students and staff at Southern Connecticut State University are outraged with the tuition hike proposal and on Wednesday, Mar. 13, they took to the academic quad to let people know.
“Everyone is really against it,” said Alix Lawson, president of the SCSU College Democrats and co-planner of the Tuition Hike Rally.
Lawson said that she and the other co-organizers of the event spent the entirety of the rally passing out informational fliers and letting students know exactly what will be going on with their money if the proposed tuition increases pass.
Southern students take part in the rally again raising tuition costs. There is a proposal of increasing the costs by $800. This tuition raise is only effecting Connecticut State Schools and is not taking place at the University of Connecticut.
“We’ve been showing the students the sample letters that we sent to congress telling them were not happy with this proposal,” she said. “We’ve also been telling them how much tuition will be raised by if you’re a commuter, if you’re a resident, if you’re in-state, and if you’re out-of-state if the Board of Regents votes for this proposal.”
Laura Puopolo, president of Democracy Matters–the club that ran the event–said that the club’s main goal is to, “take the corporate money out of politics.”
She explained that while the government is giving University of Connecticut 1.5 million dollars, they are also voting at the capital on Thursday, Mar. 21 on a proposal to increase tuition at the Connecticut State Schools by 800 dollars.
“I’d really like to see money go into Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern,” said Puopolo, “just as much as UConn.”
Jeff Banks, senior anthropology major, said that although he is graduating this year, he knows what it’s like to have to pay for school out-of-pocket and he feels bad for others that will be in the same position as him next year.
“I really disagree with the tuition hikes,” he said. “I have been going to Southern on and off since 2006 and back then tuition was only 2,500 dollars for a commuter, but now it’s about 4,200 dollars.”
Lawson said that she was nervous about the event outcome because “Southern students are known to be apathetic.”
She said she is happy with the number of students that are signing up for the bus trip up to the state capitol on the day of the voting.
“The biggest impact to me is that people who didn’t even know this was occurring are going up and speaking,” said Lawson. “We don’t know over half of them, but they still have a voice and they want to be heard and I love that they’re being heard right now.”
Puopolo also said that she was unsure of how many people would come out and rally, because she didn’t know how many people even knew about the proposal.
“I was nervous,” she said, “but I think it affects everyone and we just want to make sure the student’s voices get heard.”
Sam Cheney, also a co-organizer for the event, said that although they did not have many resources in planning this event, and it was quickly organized, he is still very pleased with the outcome.
“I absolutely love the organic energy that’s going on here,” he said. “We didn’t have any speakers scheduled, but the fact that students are totally willing to come up and say their piece – that’s really amazing. That’s what needs to be heard up on the Capitol on the 21st.”
