Stop Tuition Hikes at the U of M!
Don’t Dismantle General College!
By Katie Quarles
University of Minnesota student

At the University of Minnesota, the cost of tuition and fees has almost doubled in the past six years. The average annual cost of attending has gone from $13,524 to $18,852. These cost increases are slamming the University’s door in the face of many working class youth.

The University is also planning to get rid of General College (GC), which admits working-class students and students of color whose under-funded high schools failed to adequately prepare them to meet normal U of M admissions criteria.

While GC was responsible for 15% of undergraduate admissions at the University in 2004, it admitted the majority of incoming African American students and a large part of other minority students. The U’s plan to phase out GC is a cruel attack on access to quality higher education for working-class youth.

The Corporate University

Rising tuition and the closing of GC is all part of a process they call “Strategic Positioning,” designed to push working class youth out of the University in order to raise their rankings. If you’re from a poor neighborhood with an under-funded school, you’ll probably get worse SAT and ACT scores. This lowers a school’s ranking, so the University doesn’t want you.

This is a ruling class solution to the budget crisis at the U of M, caused by years of tax cuts for the rich. They are trying to make students and workers pay for the crisis through tuition hikes and program cuts.

Plus, they want to attract large corporate donations by increasing the U’s ranking and by shifting money to corporate welfare research facilities for companies like Cargill and Medtronic.

Research should be done for human need, not corporate greed, and making quality higher education available to working class youth should be the primary mission of the U of M.

Books Not Bombs

YAWR calls for equal access to higher education and living-wage jobs so young people can have a genuine alternative to the recruiters’ poverty draft. That’s why we are walking out on April 28th.

The cuts at the U of M are part of a worldwide attack on accessible public education. While our universities become more elite and exclusive, working class youth face crumbling over-crowded schools, unemployment, and dead-end jobs.

We shouldn’t put our faith in the politicians of either party. In Minnesota and across the country, both Democrats and Republicans have been complicit in these anti-youth cutbacks. Only independent mass action and organization by youth and workers can guarantee a decent future for our generation.

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in Justice, newspaper of Socialist Alternative. Read the original at: www.socialistalternative.org/justice47/6.html

“Largest Cut in Student Aid Ever” On February 1, Congress passed a deficit-reduction package that calls for $12.7 billion to be cut from federal student loan programs over five years. In dollar terms, this is the largest single cut in student-aid programs ever and will substantially raise the already high debt burden on students and recent graduates.