Students and workers must strike together

Last semester an anonymous proposal was issued calling for a state-wide strike against the administration of IU on April 11-12.

In early December, a mass assembly took place in the Indiana Memorial Union to discuss the proposal and to air the grievances of students, workers and faculty. Chief among the concerns was the rising cost of tuition.

Following the mass assembly, the administration rushed to do damage
control.

Departing Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald met with the Board of Trustees to publicly discuss the efforts he has overseen to control tuition.

Theobald emphasized the administration’s plan to freeze tuition for juniors and seniors in good academic standing who are on track to graduate in four years.

This plan is nothing but a cynical ploy to advance what seems to be the administration’s long-term goal: the conversion of IU into an elite and exclusive institution.

A recent report in “The New York Times” confirmed there is a clear correlation between economic status and academic success. Students from poor backgrounds often lack the familial safety nets and material support which wealthier students rely on. The difference is not a manifestation of “intrinsic brightness” but evidence of class-based barriers to success.

A tuition freeze premised on academic success would only further penalize students from poor backgrounds. How can anyone reasonably expect students working one to three jobs to pay their way through school to perform as well as their wealthier, more secure classmates?

Where is the sense in making the poorest students pay the highest tuition? A plan like this only makes sense if the administration’s goal is to force out poorer students while quieting discontent about skyrocketing tuition.

Further, this type of plan does practically nothing to address the perpetual tuition hikes already plaguing IU students. Tuition at IU has increased by 5 percent every year since 2007, driving students into obscene amounts of debt.

The average IU graduate is now $27,000 in debt.

Are we supposed to drool over the opportunity to graduate with a debt load frozen between one tuition hike and the next?

Of course, the administration knows the grade-linked freeze won’t be enough to dissolve our anger. They’re trying to turn us against one another.

At the same meeting, Theobald directly connected the grade-linked freeze to the wage freeze for IU employees. This was a blatant attempt to manipulate the students and workers into fighting each other.

But we aren’t that stupid. The students who have seen their tuition explode know we can’t blame the workers who are praying their pay will keep up with inflation.

The real enemy has always been the administration, who want nothing more than to freeze wages and increase tuition while lining their own pockets.

It’s time for the students and workers of this school to join together.

If we want real change on this campus, we can’t rely on the administration to give it to us. If we want fair tuition and livable wages, we’ll have to fight for them.

­— atcrane@indiana.edu