Most students can agree that higher education ought to be affordable and accessible. However, once we dig a little deeper into how to accomplish these goals, clear differences emerge. Some candidates in this year’s campus election would accept a risky privatization scheme that would put the state in even greater debt and make our University’s financial health dependent on a turbulent stock market.
What’s worse is the University administrations’ so-called “New Partnership” would establish a private board of directors that would be able to increase our tuition. This board would have little oversight from taxpayers, minimal student involvement and — if the administration’s track record is any guide — little transparency.
Regardless of what Sinjin Carey and Kaitlyn Lange say during their campaign, Lange is on the record supporting privatization. Last June she signed a letter (“Commit to higher ed and restructure University funding,” ODE, June 3) urging the current ASUO Executive to join her “in solidarity in supporting a new partnership with the state.”
The best way to ensure the next leaders representing 24,000 students do not support this plan is to vote for Ben Eckstein and Katie Taylor for ASUO Executive. They are for a public university, now and always.
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