People always tell me how lucky I am to be in college, and this is true, it’s a blast. But the only thing that I have learned is how irresponsibly you can use money when you work for Uncle Sam.
The biggest drain on my time and budget, by far, is school. I could buy ten brand new, top of the line wetsuits, seven or so custom shaped boards, and fill my truck with gas for a trip to Baja (several times) before I even start to get close to how much I pay for school.
This is nothing new; students have been paying large amounts in tuition to four-year universities. But lately, especially in California, being a student has been a fight. It’s a fight against the people who are irresponsibly using our funds and then asking us for more, like it’s not a big deal. Well let me be the one to say it. Enough. Knock this shit off.
California is now in a notoriously awkward budget situation, as we have been for years. Every fiscal year, our legislature puts off writing a budget like it’s some 3rd grade book report, leaving us deeper in a hole. They fight over who is going to suffer from cuts and it always comes down to two groups: Prisoners and Students. And let me tell you, the prisoners are winning.
In the last year alone, the CSU (California State University) system has raised tuition 24%. In the last four years (since 2007) the cost to attend a CSU has doubled! It truly makes me sick to my stomach, that nowadays, (according to collegeboard.com) the average student attending a public university pays $7,605 (out of state is $11,990) and private universities charge on average, $27,293.
I personally work two jobs, with a maximum (if I work as much as I can) income of $1,200 per month. Between rent/utilities ($420 per month), gas ($180 per month) and food ($350 per month) I spend roughly $1,000. Almost my entire paycheck! Without school bills, life is great. Living hand-to-mouth is fine (especially when the waves are good), until that letter comes in the mail each semester with the words “you owe:” right before some obscene number from CSU Monterey Bay. So as all good students do, I have taken out loans in my name to ensure my spot in California’s seemingly endless education machine and I accept the fact that I will be working off that debt for a portion of my life.
The real travesty here comes not from the amount that I am charged, but the other ways that our leaders are choosing to save money. While I pay 24% more, I get 10% less class time, larger class sizes, less classes and fewer services. All of this while UC Davis hires a new Chancelor, Linda Katehi, at $400,000 a year (a 12.4% increase from her old job’s salary).
All the while students fight. We protest on OUR campus, and take back OUR buildings, because Damn it we pay for it and we want to use it. Education should be free! We are lenient enough as it is to pay for the mediocre experience we get. Dorms are dirty and crowded, food is unhealthy and mass-produced, and they threaten to shut down our gym every year. But no one listens to us.
They say we are the future, and then they set such a poor example for us. They tell us of our opportunities for success and equality and then they put us in the poor-house. They teach us to share, and serve and to be wise with our resources, and then they waste it all on their fancy lifestyles.
We are in shambles, but it’s nothing students aren’t used to. My Mother always said, “College is the poorest time in your life. You are supposed to be poor in college.” Well Mom, of every lesson you ever taught me, those words never rang so true. Here is to hoping I’m not this poor for the next twenty-something years.
All this info comes from these articles, feel free to fact check and educate yourself. The more we know the more we can change:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-07-13/news/29767733_1_csu-tuition-csu-employees-student-trustee
