From 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, the Washington State University Vancouver campus held a student walkout to protest the 14% tuition rise.
“If you can pick any social problem to fix, it should be education,” said Evan Marienthal, junior WSUV business administration major from Onalaska. “And if these tuition hikes keep progressing the way they have been, then higher education will effectively overprice itself for the market it is in. There will be this huge social dilemma.”
About 500 students were expected to participate in the WSUV protest alone, about half of the students on campus at that time.
“It is really hard to gauge the social culture at my school because it is a commuter school,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot to unite the students around.”
Instead of attending class, students held an organized rally.
“Instead of going to class, I am going to attend the rally. There will be a couple guest speakers,” said Marienthal. “We haven’t shared an interest in any political venture thus far. It will be a cool thing to experience.”
WSUV student government organized the protest, posted flyers in every building around the campus and handed them out among the students.
“The purpose of the walkout is not to change anything, but to raise awareness that students can voice their opinions,” he said. “Everyone who as (HAS) a twelve o’ clock class is aware of it. My professor cancelled my 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. class.”
The tuition hikes will cause 3,000 students to lose their financial aid and a 500 work-study job loss.
“A message will be sent to Olympia and it will have an impact. I think it will be a relative success,” he said. “It’s a good cause and it affects me. I would participate and not go to class even if my professor did not cancel it.”
Walkouts were held at other WSU campus locations and also at Eastern Washington University.
“This disinvestment into higher education is kind of becoming a disinvestment in the future of Washington State,” said Kris Byrum, Associated Students of EWU affairs representative, in a KREM news interview. “We need to figure out a way to fund higher education and to ensure that Washington doesn’t fall any farther behind.”
The tuition raises will have an adverse effect on many of the universities administration functions, such as layoffs and hiring freezes. With fewer professors, class size will increase to maintain a higher student to faculty ratio.
“Professors have an invested interest,” said Marienthal. “My professor can’t ask us to lobby for legislation, but he is asking us to write a hypothetical letter to legislatures to discuss how world history effects current opinion.”
The state deficit is not in dispute. The money has to come from somewhere, but many agree that education system in not the place to get it.
“I realize that the state deficit absolutely needs to be fixed. But putting it on the backs of students will not solve the problem,” said Marienthal. “It is effectively self-defeating. Is that where we want to go? Making education worse than it already is?”
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