By Phillip Bailey
Slowly but surely public universities are waking up from the absurd notion that qualified students should pay increasing tuition and handle serious debt after graduation. The University of Pennsylvania joined other top universities by inching closer to the idea of free higher education. Just two weeks ago Penn announced that students whose annual family incomes were less than $50,000 would receive full grants that would pay for tuition, room and board. Not loans kiddies, but grants that pay for a full ride. “By eliminating loans for low-and-middle income students, our financial aid program now enables students from every family income level to enroll at Penn,” said President Amy Gutmann. “By providing financial aid packages without loans … we can ease their financial concerns, not only throughout their education but also after graduation, enabling them more freedom to choose the most satisfying careers.”
Penn claims that it is the first major research university to fund the majority of its financial aid for low- and middle-income students. Right-wing polemists have argued making higher education free for qualified but penniless American students would reduce the quality of education. I don’t see the logic. Certainly that doesn’t apply to Penn, which according to its Web site “consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey.” Meanwhile U of L, almost immediately after raising tuition by a whopping 13 percent, offered free NIT trips to Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, Metro Council members, federal officials and state legislators. According to WLKY-32, the total package was pretty sweet. It included a free trip to New York City on a private plane with all first-class seats and free tickets to the game. And I’m betting the seats weren’t rotten either.
If you’re thinking that the offer extended by U of L President James Ramsey is unreasonable, you’re not alone. The Metro Government Ethics Commission ruled that the total package offered, which is worth $1,750 per person, violates the “reasonable hosting” clause. “Our decision was that it was beyond the scope of something that was reasonable,” said John Mason, chairman of the commission.If you’re as frustrated as I am then you’ve probably wasted time railing against student apathy. I have asked several times why we accept this Orwellian logic of the most deprived group, who are the least represented annually, being the most heavily taxed? Editorials and student leaders have asked the same question in some form or another. Maybe you have. I know scholar Helen Milner provides a succinct answer: “A sense of legitimacy is essential to the maintenance of any order.” We comply because our identity as students is manufactured to fulfill an obligation passively. We submit to a university system and flawed governmental policy that says in order to run this place at a high level of quality you must pay, pay and pay. That’s what being a student means, right?
Thinking comes from people who see themselves as objects of authority, not sources of it. Instead of rallies, editorial scolding or power-points, we need to deconstruct that identity. Start now. Just think critically, what does it mean to be an American student? What should my obligations be? I’d like to hear your thoughts; send them to freehighereduofl@gmail.com Remember, legitimacy is never static, and all empires must fall.
