This is what we get from student "leaders" these days: A system where a good idea dies at the hands of ignorant, selfish children.
That's exactly what happened Friday when the Board of Regents, taking its cues from student government officials, decided not to steer tuition funds toward a need-based scholarship. UA President Mark Hamilton proposed a base 7 percent tuition increase starting in fall 2007. He also asked the regents consider going up to 10 percent, with the funds from those extra 1-3 percentage points going to need-based financial aid.
Each additional 1 percent tuition increase would produce $750,000 for a need-based program. That's a lot of money for students who need it the most. It was a brilliant idea, a way for the university to address those persistent reports of having an "F" in affordability.
But then came the student "leaders." And suddenly helping the poor wasn't the moral thing to do anymore.
"It's something I don't feel the students should have to pay for," Jacob Gondek, the student regent, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "That would put the poor paying for the poorer."
"Why should students be paying for other students to go to college?" ASUAF President Sven Gilkey asked the News-Miner.
"When the state is already paying residents to live here, along with the fact that there are numerous scholarships and grants available to most students, it seems ridiculous that students would be pitted against one another and forced to pay for others' shortcomings," the UAA Northern Light newspaper said in an editorial.
Listen, I'm going to talk to all three of you for a moment as if you were kindergartners, because that's exactly how you acted this week.
Gondek, most students aren't as poor as you think they are. Many of us saved up for college. Others have their parents' financial backing. Still others get scholarships, like the $1,375-per-semester UA Scholars Award. And then there are the students who fit all three categories. We may not be rich, but we're certainly not poor. Well-off students can afford to spend an extra $4 or $5 per credit to provide low-income students with the opportunities the rest of us can afford.
Gilkey, I'll gladly answer your question: Students should help pay for needy students to go to college because no one else will. It's called a "need-based" scholarship because those people need the money. The rest of us really don't.
And to The Northern Light, most of those scholarships you say are already available don't target the needy. Most scholarships at UA campuses are merit based, and those tend to go to middle-to-upper class students, studies show.
All three of you should be ashamed. You were so busy playing leader that you weren't willing to actually lead. At the very least you could have advocated for an extra 1 percent increment; it would have meant $750,000 in funds for scholarships for your low-income constituents. But instead, you used your positions to help yourselves and not others.
I just have two words for all of you: Grow up.
