Dear Editor:
Concerning Chancellor Wendler's new budget proposal, from the point of view of an international graduate student, we pay $2,070.43 per semester for six credit hours as non-residents. We pay the same amount of fees as do other students, yet the fees do not cover any dental insurance, although the residential students have up to 80 percent coverage for traumatic dental emergency care. I live in Carbondale with a monthly salary of only $1,049.81, after taxes. Yes, I do pay taxes. I do not have a credit card nor am I given a housing allowance. Why does Chancellor Wendler and other upper level administrators need six-figure salaries to live in this community? It is always the students who bear the burden during the tough times, but never the administration.
I thought the University was for the students and about the students. It must be an illusion. Cutting graduate assistantships and steep tuition increases will produce suspicion and resentment among the students. It will also damage the future enrollment at this University. My life is fully dependent on the student assistantship. Without it, I have to give up my doctoral degree simply because I cannot afford it. We cannot have an off-campus job because of our visa status, and we are not able to receive any financial aid from the U.S. government regardless of our academic abilities. We are working for the opportunities that we were told this country stands for. Yet, these remedies - increased tuition and decreased assistantships - simply lack consideration for the hardworking international students.
Yuki Kobiyama
graduate student, plant biology
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
