Dear Editor:
The classist attitude of the Daily Egyptian editorial staff in their acceptance of Chancellor Wendler's proposed tuition increase is appalling. They seem to think it's all right for the student body to be composed of an "elite" class (with the undesirable element weeded out) speckled with some low-income representatives. They also believe the further advancement of private dollars in the University is the path to prestige. Where have you been? The existence of private dollars in today's politics is the means by which peoples voices are no longer heard over the din of corporate donation machine. Those same private interest dollars are causing the increase in education costs across the nation.
Private/corporate special interest groups with their financial fingers in the University system necessarily obligate the act in the best interest of their dollar donors, not the students. Universities are becoming factories and the students are their products. This is SIU not U of I or Northwestern. The vision of this University's former administration was to provide a quality education for all people at a reasonable cost. The current tuition proposition and increased private funding will make this University unaffordable to students from certain income levels. This type of bourgeois posturing by the Daily Egyptian editors for working-class students to "bite the bullet" is rampant throughout universities worldwide.
Scott Schuette
graduate student, plant biology
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
