62%
The director at the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University sent out a fee increase notice on May 16, 2006 to students of the program. The fee increase for the special session in which I am enrolled, from $215 per unit to $349, a substantial 62% increase, is by no means an easy pill to swallow. While the director, Dr. Ken Haycock, did his best in explaining the reasoning behind the increase, pointing out that despite the increase the MLIS program at SJSU remains one of the most affordable in the U.S., I was rather piqued by his response to the deluge of student protests (mainly through email and electronic postings instead of mass demonstration and burning cars like those in France). His somewhat condescending tone did not do a good job in soothing student sentiment:
The trend of rising tuition costs across the U.S. makes it simply inevitable for SJSU to catch on. What caught us off guard, I believe, is the sheer magnitude of 62% increase. Imagine the happiness of getting a 62% salary raise at work, how will that change one's life? The same can be said for us students, already struggling with tuition and book and living costs in the state of California, 62% fee increase without any warning is not something we can stomach quietly.
"The special session fee increase is not a “CSU fee” insofar as special session is to be an entirely self-supporting program; the faculty and staff extend themselves to provide the program; we are under no requirement to do so; we could simply cancel it and continue with the regular program of 600 students."To even suggest closing the special session program in Southern California sounds as if we are an expendable lot of herds that should be thankful of the charity bestowed upon us by SJSU.
"Special session students have complained to me about inferior status, access to courses, quality of instruction, IT infrastructure; we can address these issues only through increased funds."Improvement is the theme often cited to justify any means of fee increase. While I give credit to Dr. Haycock for addressing these apparent issues, I doubt the increased funds will propel any meaningful change to the current program; any additional funds will only be used in maintaining the status quo. It is just like gasoline, either at $2.50 or $3.37 the same mpg applies.
The trend of rising tuition costs across the U.S. makes it simply inevitable for SJSU to catch on. What caught us off guard, I believe, is the sheer magnitude of 62% increase. Imagine the happiness of getting a 62% salary raise at work, how will that change one's life? The same can be said for us students, already struggling with tuition and book and living costs in the state of California, 62% fee increase without any warning is not something we can stomach quietly.
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posted by Michelin L.W.Y at 5/18/2006 03:16:00 PM
2 Comments:
was the book festival not very good? everyone in your picture is leaving except for one guy who is going in.
It seems the costs for education in the US will just keep rising like this forever, and where is the increase in quality that one might hope for as compensation? In Colorado, too, as the state government cuts its education funding due to budget shortfalls, students bear more and more of the burden. Is an uneducated populace what we really want?
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