Poor students should not be subsidizing UNM shortfalls

Editor,

I am writing in response to Daily Lobo reporter Shaun Griswold’s piece, “Tuition bump on the horizon,” to express my disappointment that the ASUNM president is “optimistic” that tuition will go up by 8-10 percent.

Translation: He is “optimistic” that New Mexico resident undergraduates will enjoy a $300 tuition increase for fall 2011. What a defeatist attitude!

There is no reason why students, one of the poorest demographics nationally, should have to subsidize the University with tuition and fee increases. Is it not enough that tuition and fees for resident undergraduates have increased by marginally more than 100 percent in the last 10 years?

Is it not enough that the average undergraduate completing their degree this semester will owe roughly $25,000 in student loans?

What will it be for those graduating in three or four years’ time — $30,000? $40,000? Unfortunately, I’d say this is a likely scenario if ongoing fiscal trends continue and given that the Lottery Scholarship is on its last legs.

I thought that UNM was a public institution that is in the business of providing a public service meant to be affordable and accessible to all.

I thought UNM was meant to offer a wealth of quality classes taught by tenure and tenure-track faculty. Instead we are heading into a future where students are asked to pay exponentially rising tuition costs for classes (what few are left after budget cuts force program cancellations) that are bigger than ever and are almost entirely taught by underpaid part-timers on semester-to-semester contracts.

I urge all who read this to consider whether an 8-10 percent rise in tuition is the way forward. Is the only solution to the so-called budget crisis placing the largest burden on those who can least afford it? I think not. Ask yourselves this: Where else is there money on this campus? Is it within the bloated administration where the average salary is over $250,000 and annual deferred compensation packages can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars? Is it within the millions of instructional dollars siphoned off into non-academic programs like the UNM Foundation, the Alumni Association and intercollegiate athletics? Is it within the roughly three-fourths of a billion (yes, billion!) dollars that UNM has in liquid assets (including nearly $200,000,000 in cash)?

If you find that this negligence by UNM toward those it is meant to serve makes you angry or upset, I encourage you to tell the Board of Regents and UNM administration. On March 28, the UNM Board of Regents will convene in the SUB (Ballroom C, 9 a.m.) for its annual “Budget Summit.”

Let them know that you won’t stand for rising tuition in the face of a diminishing quality of education. Let them know that they don’t have to squeeze students dry as they already have the money to avert the “budget crisis.”

I and many others who feel as you do look forward to you joining us Monday in the SUB to let our voice be heard.

Tom Whittaker
UNM student