By: Nicole Castro/Staff Writer
The year-to-year tuition increases and fees students must pay have frustrated a University professor and he gave his opinions of them at a recent event.
“It is not the American dream. It is not what we should be about as a university,” said Brian Peterson, associate professor for the department of history.
Peterson spoke in an educational forum organized by Occupy FIU titled, “Rising cost of tuition and its relation to FIU’s graduation rate.”
Occupy FIU held a teach-in on Nov. 2 and 3 to persuade students tuition increases must be stopped.
The group did this in an effort to emulate the Occupy Wall Street protests by localizing the discontent of the protesters to the overall discontent at the University.
Over the last four years, the University’s tuition has gone up by 15 percent a year seeing a rise from $3,000 to an approximate $5,000 for in-state tuition, Peterson said during his presentation.
According to Peterson, the state decrees eight percent for all universities, and the remaining seven percent is left to the discretion of each university.
“The administration at FIU has a plan to keep on raising tuition by 15 percent a year until we reach the national average.
The national average increase this year is 8.3 percent percent and we are going at 15 percent.
It will take seven more years to catch up with the national average, and by that time tuition at FIU will be $13,000 a year from $5,000,” said Peterson.
He expressed his concern that there will be a lot of students from low and middle income families that will not be able to come to the University as a result of that $13,000 tuition.
Like most universities, Peterson said, FIU is taking advantage of the full remaining seven percent every chance they get, but he added that this is not a measure that a university interested in educating students would take, calling it a “bad social policy.”
In his speech, Peterson emphasized the strategy that the administration has taken to stealthily prevent complaints from students.
“Tuition increases are only for the new students coming in. Whatever tuition was as a freshmen, that’s what it will be for you, meaning no student at FIU has a personal self interest in stopping tuition increase,” he said. “It is an insidious and devilish policy, as far as I am concerned, to make it so that you guys will not protest tuition increases.”
Students who gathered to hear Peterson applauded his effort to make known that, although there is no visible impact to current students, it is an altruistic move to take on a cause that will affect someone’s brother, sister, neighbor and low and middle income students in our society.
Peterson also urged the Occupy movement not get involved in electoral politics and instead remain representing the “99%.”
“The SGA has approved tuition increase and approved the athletics fee…,” he said. “They are going along with the program but you could get the word out that we want a student government that represents the 99 percent of students and not the 1 percent that are affluent.”
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