Members of the Young Democratic Socialists and a Facebook group called the Michigan State University Transparency and Accountability Initiative and others protest the possibility of a tuition increase outside the Administration Building. The students used catchy songs and painted signs to attract people who walked by, asking them to sign a petition. The Transparency and Accountability Initiative will present the petition at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting later this month.
Students with green-and-white picket signs gathered Thursday at the Administration Building asking passers-by to sign a petition that seeks to cap tuition costs.
A Facebook group called the Michigan State University Transparency and Accountability Initiative organized the protest, but representatives from the MSU Young Democratic Socialists also were present, among others. About 15 people were gathered outside the building.
The petition is addressed to MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and members of the MSU Board of Trustees and asks them to implement a 2 percent tuition increase cap for the 2009-10 academic year. The group fears an increase in tuition because of the proposed budget plan that would increase in-state tuition by 8.9 percent, which individually increases a student’s tuition bill by almost $462 per semester. The group plans to present the petition at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for April 24.
The protest marks the first public appearance the MSU Transparency and Accountability Initiative has had outside of an ASMSU meeting.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
The group has accumulated about 150 signatures, and plans to continue reaching out.
“We feel the administration has been able to raise tuition every year in the summer, and people forget about it. The next year the same thing comes around and students are caught off guard. There needs to be a steady presence of students who do not want to pay more,” Transparency and Accountability Initiative member Horia Dijmarescu said.
The international relations, economics and global and area studies senior said the petition is just the beginning. The group hopes to eventually achieve statewide acknowledgement and to address issues that threaten higher education on a larger scale.
“Every dollar we lose from the state, we have to make up by other means, usually tuition,” Dijmarescu said.
MSU Trustee Faylene Owen said the amount of money MSU will receive from the state is unknown. She also said the issue is premature, considering the board has not even discussed tuition increases as of yet.
Members from the MSU Young Democratic Socialists also support the cause. Although they are strongly concerned with the financial dangers, they also call attention to the social aspects that increasing tuition could have on the student body.
Young Democratic Socialists national organizer Erik Rosenberg, who is on a statewide tour lecturing on the economic crisis, was at the protest and said raising tuition is a step in diminishing equal opportunity.
“It is making this institute elitist,” Rosenberg said.
Other members, such as international relations junior Allison Voglesong, said more students should be involved.
“This is what being active is. If you want people to show up, throw a kegger — that is what students respond to,” Voglesong said.
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