The UI Student Government is in danger of losing credibility with students after this one.
Top UISG leaders such as President Michael Currie ruefully endorsed a plan to impose both a 6 percent tuition hike for next year and a midyear, $100 spring surcharge. The UISG Senate followed suit on Tuesday, voting — with little objection — to support both financial increases.
Currie acknowledged the gravity of the situation.
“All senators and all students [have] the right and absolutely should question our judgment,” he said. “I’ve been back and forth on the issues quite a bit myself.”
UISG officials’ reasoning for supporting these burdensome hikes isn’t sufficient. Any state government would deem a tuition increase reasonable in such a troublesome fiscal era. But UISG officials should represent the student voice, not acquiescing to the state Board of Regents’ concerns.
What’s even more disheartening is Currie’s capitulation to the increases, while student governments from both University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University have vehemently opposed the spikes. It’s one thing to shelve a facile campaign promise because of bad economic times. But to explicitly endorse an action completely antithetical is downright ignominious.
Currie’s Go Party told the DI during last semester’s campaign that freezing the cost of tuition was a feasible and realistic goal. Apparently that’s not the case, according to Currie’s latest statements.
“The reason for supporting the hike and surcharge is because I believe that it is the best course of action for the students’ interests in the long run,” he said.
We simply cannot support blemished decisions of UISG officials when they are elected to purportedly represent the students. The orthodoxy of the majority of UISG Senate members is equally troubling. We credit those few members of UISG who opposed the hike and surcharge, including Sens. Michael Appel and Whitney Carson.
“We are elected by the students to represent the students,” Carson said on Tuesday night. “This surcharge does not represent the students.”
Appel went even further, proposing legislation in opposition to a midyear charge and tuition hike. UI students should laud both Appel and Carson for their support of student opinion.
“I think it is extremely disappointing that UISG officials decided to support the tuition increase and the surcharge,” Appel said. “It is a very poor reflection on our elected officials who represent the student body.”
Currie didn’t have kind words for the minority vote.
“With all due respect, I would ask what alternatives they proposed?” he said. “I listened to the dissenters of the surcharge [on Tuesday], and they really did not offer any alternative solutions.”
Even if Currie and his constituents didn’t hear a secondary proposal that suited them, the issue remains vastly important and should have been tabled. We see no rationale in forcing an early approval on such a divisive topic.
Unfortunately, this has become yet another hiccup for UISG in the few months since their term began. It’s important that UISG officials refocus their efforts on voicing student concerns.
“Not to toot my own horn,” Currie said, “but I’ve been in student government for four years now, and I can say without hesitation that this is the best student government I’ve been a part of.”
Let’s allow time to decide that one, Mr. Currie.