Understanding student anger in the SUNY Tuition Hike in NY

Bumped. Education costs were a huge priority of young voters in this election. This is one issue where people will be looking to see some early action from an Obama administration. --Mike

Cross posted on College Dems of NY blog:

As a senior at Binghamton University, the SUNY tuition hike has been a hot topic issue. In addition to being President of the College Democrats of NY, I also have a seat on student government at BU.
At this past Monday's student government meeting, students expressed outrage at Governor Patterson's tuition hike. But its not for the reason you might think.

While students aren't happy about the tuition hike, we understand that a deficit must be made up and therefore tuition needs to be raised as a result of cutting SUNY funding.

What students will not stand for, and what Governor Patterson has done to outrage students, is in addition to cutting college education spending to SUNY, he is mandating an increase in tuition which will NOT be going back to the SUNY school, but rather will be used to fund other parts of the NYS Budget that does not encompass college education. This is a blantant tax Patterson is imposing on SUNY students.

So currently, BU students are faced with a $300 proposed tuition increase for next semester, of which only $30 which actually go back to Binghamton U. That is what has caused outrage. If students are to be charged an additional $300, it should directly back to our own school to cover the cut in spending that BU gets from the state, rather than to fund Wall Street's mess or new roads being built.

Each of the past couple of years, SUNY funding has been decreased by several million dollars. I can't even remember the last time that the NYS government increased SUNY funding.

Students are standing up across the state at SUNY schools and saying Enough is Enough! We cannot keep harming our nation's youth in education. I sincerely hope that the Governor changes his proposal to one that makes sense for students.