|
Testimony to the
Board of Trustees
of the City University of New York
June
16,
2003
by
Ruth Misheloff, Department of English, BMCC
Chairman
Schmidt and other Trustees:
My
name is Ruth Misheloff, and I teach at the Borough of Manhattan
Community College. I
have not previously testified before the Trustees.
I’ve come today to make a simple point that I feel keenly
about and that I believe is often overlooked or not well understood.
Because
the tuition increases you are going to vote on are not as severe as
those the Governor threatened us with earlier in the year, you may
therefore feel less compunction at approving them.
$800 for the senior colleges, $300 for the community
colleges: Why should we
balk, why should we protest? I
came today not only because in principle – as others have said or
will say – this is a tax upon our students and a further erosion
of public responsibility for public education;
I also came because I want to make the simple, over-looked
point that these amounts of money, seemingly trivial for us, who are
well-paid and secure in our lives, are NOT trivial for most CUNY
students.
In
my college, $300 a year, $150
a term, means book money.
Have you priced accounting and biology and math textbooks
lately? $80, 90, 100 apiece.
English composition texts are routinely $50 each or more. You
may be astounded to hear that there are cases in which students try
to get through their courses without textbooks because they simply
cannot afford them. When
you parse the $300 community college increase into $10 a week per
term, that sounds easy to swallow – but it’s transportation
money, it’s money that single parents need for Pampers or to pay
for babysitters. For
us, as faculty or as trustees, $10 is the cost of a taxi fare, or
perhaps less than a single lunch, or a movie; the $10 leaves our
pockets painlessly. We
have it, we spend it.
But low-income students do feel every $10; to them every $10
matters. That is what can too easily be forgotten by the legislature
and by you, the Board.
Early
in the spring term, as tuition hikes loomed, some teachers in the
English Department at BMCC asked students to write about what
increased tuition would mean for them.
Here are excerpts from a few of the 850 statements students
submitted:
A
young woman in my English Comp I class wrote:
“.
. . I live alone and pay my own rent, bills, tuition, and whatever
else I need.
As it is, I struggle sometimes to make ends meet.
I scrape pennies to make those AMS payments when that bill
comes in the mail. . . . I am a writer, an activist, a social
worker.
I am a loudmouth urban dweller who has a lot to say – but
before I say anything I want it to sound good, and I want to have an
education to back me up. . . .
“Walking
across my campus here at BMCC makes me happy.
Rushing from work to make it to class makes me happy.
Even homework makes me happy!
You know why?
Because I know that after I’m done [with my college
education], all my dreams will come true.”
A
student in another class wrote:
“I am a
21-year-old single parent who is trying to make something of myself
so that in the future I will be able to support my family better. .
. . I receive full financial aid for school, which I thank the Lord
for every day.
.
. . Every week I have new expenses like Pampers. Food, train fare,
feminine products, clothes for me and my baby, phone bills, rent,
and other household needs. I
also just lost my part-time job.
So every week there is a struggle.
“Even
though I have these things to worry about, going to school makes me
happy. It makes me
happy because I know that one day when I get my degree and I have
that great-paying job, these things won’t worry me anymore. . .
.”
Still
another:
“ I am
twenty years old, a single mother of a seven-month-old little boy
named Jason, and a full-time employee at the New York Sports Club.
I work forty hours a week to pay for childcare and any
necessities for Jason and myself.
After taxes, eighty percent goes straight to Jason’s
babysitter, diapers, food, and clothing.
What is left goes towards weekly transportation, lunch, and
schoolbooks. . . .”
And
another:
“Presently
I rely on my parents to help pay my tuition; however, they also have
to take care of my two other siblings and other various bills.
This is all being done without my receiving any type of
financial aid or any kind of assistance.
My life revolves right now on making enough money so I can at
least have train fare to travel to school, let alone have money to
eat, even though my parents pay the majority of my expenses. . . .
“As
I think of the amount of tuition rising, a feeling wells up within
me.
Most would probably feel anger.
I, on the other hand, feel fear.
Fear of remaining in the cycle of poverty and
simple-mindedness which surrounds me, and fear of not being able
ever to escape it.
Fear that my goals have been snatched out of my hands and
placed out of my reach by people who do not know me or my situation.
For me to reach my goals or become something more than what
the world will now let me be, I must know more and this hike is not
going to help me.”
And
finally:
“This
is my second semester in this school [BMCC].
It gives me happiness, motivation, and every reason to work
even harder. I have two jobs, both responsible and stressful. . . .
“I came
to New York a few years ago and I did not know any English at all.
I worked very hard to support myself and my family in Poland
as well. Finally, last
September, I gave myself a chance and I am so proud of myself that
it does not matter how bad my day was, or why my boss yelled at us
at work. My problems
disappear after I spend some time in class.
I feel I can do anything.
“This
semester I took 13 credits. I
manage, I study and do my homework, and I work hard to make the
money and pay for school. Yes, I did receive financial aid in the amount of $250 and I
appreciate it a lot. Every
month I have to send money to my family.
My mom retired a few years ago; my sister stays home with her
baby, and as I am writing this paper my brother-in-law is in the
hospital waiting for surgery . . . .
“. . .
The increase in tuition will not help me at all.
I already appreciate the chance this country is giving me –
there is no age discrimination and even though I am not 18 years old
anymore, I still can try and hope for a better future. . . .
“Please
reconsider. Just give
us a chance to improve our skills and
lives and have a better future. . . .”
In
a word, for BMCC students, for most CUNY students, every dollar,
every ten dollars, matters.
$300 matters.
$800 matters.
Your vote for a
tuition increase makes the lives of CUNY students harder,
here and now, and makes a decent future more difficult if not
impossible for them to reach.
|
