Students protesting next year’s tuition hike staged a two-hour demonstration in the middle of the Lincoln Park Student Center Thursday. The protestors demanded a six-year freeze on tuition hikes.
The demonstrators, organized as the Tuition Freeze Coalition, sat cross-legged, arms linked and mouths covered with duct tape bearing the word “debt.” Behind those sitting, two others stood holding a large orange banner reading, “We are not a loan.”
“Universities are becoming stratified,” said Erez Bleicher, an organizer for the Tuition Freeze Coalition. “The current model of tuition and debt-driven education is fundamentally flawed and systematically bars the working class and other subordinated groups from higher education.”
The protest comes in response to DePaul’s plan to raise tuition rates by 2.5 percent next year. DePaul has said that the increase matches what they believe to be the rate of inflation for the next year. DePual made the same claim last year when the school raised tuition by 2.5 percent, while the average rate of inflation for the year turned out to only be 1.7 percent.
“It wouldn’t be financially sustainable,” said Caroline Winsett, the Student Government Association president, of the tuition freeze. “I think the raises are exceptionally modest and keep with the rate of inflation.”
In contrast to the demand for a tuition freeze the school has already announced several cuts they are planning to implement next year to make the budget work. Among the cuts was a delay on promotions for teachers, as well as the president of the university and his cabinet forgoing their pay increases.
As students flowed into the student center, many stopped for a moment to observe the demonstration. Bleicher wasted little time in approaching the curious and providing them with a flier that in bold type declared “I AM NOT A LOAN.” The flier went on to claim that DePaul’s expansionist policies have caused tuition to rise 35 percent in the last seven years, causing the average undergraduate student to acquire $28,000 in debt and the average graduate student $51,000. The flier closes by arguing that the tuition hike is contradictory to DePaul’s Vincentian mission by claiming it perpetuates systems of social inequality.
Sitting nearby, Winsett couldn’t help but notice a disconnect between the administration and the student protest. The administration is very concerned about the students and the affordability of tuition, she said.
“Affordability comes up in every meeting I attend,” said Winsett.
As the lunch hour rush began to settle, Donovan Singer rose from the line of sitting protestors, removed the tape from his mouth and addressed those gathered before him. He talked of his struggle with student loans and made an appeal to those listening to take action. After he returned to his seat and replaced the tape on his mouth, another student was inspired to stand and address the group. Over the next 45 minutes the protests turned into a forum. Students took turns to stand and speak about their own struggles with debt and paying for school.
“You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t,” said Hassen Bashir as he addressed his fellow protestors, referring to attending a university. “(The increase of) 2.5 percent may seem like nothing, but it’s a lot when you are already drowning.”
“I was in poverty and I was poor, but I was not in debt. The moment I decided to join university, decided to try to better myself, I was $20,000 in debt,” said Edward Ward, a student protestor. “We live in a time where the rich have only become richer, and the poor are being reduced to nothing.”
“I don’t think there is a simple answer, student debt is a very complex formula,” said Carol Montgomery, the associate vice president for career and money management at DePaul, as she listened to the makeshift forum. Tuition is only part of that formula, she continued to say. Students also have to look for aid and manage money outside of school. “Not everyone maximizes their tuition package either and often wastes money, for example if a student fails a class and has to retake it they have just lost that money,” she said.
If a student is in debt they should get financial advising immediately, Montgomery said. DePaul offers a free service to students called Financial Fitness that has offices in both Lincoln Park and the Loop that can help students manage their money. “There are decisions that can be made to help, such as how many classes a student takes a quarter,” said Montgomery.
The protest ended with a silent march of the 15 students who remained out of about 30 total students who took part in the nearly two-hour demonstration. The procession, headed by the orange banner, went through the Student Center and across the street to the Schmitt Academic Center. Once there, they pinned the orange banner to a bulletin board before disbanding.
“I think today was a very good first action,” said Bleicher. “There will for sure be more actions and events as the campaign escalates.”
TFC is set to have meetings every Monday in the Dorothy Day Room of the Richardson Library at 6 p.m.