TO THE EDITOR:
The cost and quality of a UNC degree are headed in opposite directions.
Students are forced into online or overcrowded classes and many must take extra semesters to complete required courses. Departments are being terminated. Professors, service workers and graduate students are losing their jobs. Those spared include Chancellor Holden Thorp, whose $420,000 salary was augmented by a $165,627 renovation to his residence.
UNC now costs an in-state student approximately $20,000 a year. Further budget cuts and tuition hikes are on the horizon and frighteningly, students have little input on these processes.
Free public education at UNC and other institutions is written into the state constitution because public education is key to both a functioning democracy and a growing economy. Tuition hikes and budget cuts threaten economic recovery and meaningful participation in the democratic process.
The people most affected by these hikes are those at greatest risk for poverty and political alienation — economic, racial and ethnic minorities.
At UNC, the voice of the students will be heard. UNC Students for a Democratic Society is organizing students to “Strike the Hikes.”
We demand a student referendum on all cuts and hikes, which spare the top and eviscerate the bottom. Tell us your story or find out how to get involved by emailing UNC.SDS@gmail.com.
Luke Sherry
Graduate Student
Sociology
