2008 Woodie Awards
Student initiative can make a difference
Chris Tomkins '07
Issue date: 11/3/06 Section: Opinion
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I care about tuition costs. The average cost of tuition has risen 35% in the past five years (the largest increase in the past thirty years) while many college presidents live in multi-million dollar estates (Jesuit Merion Gardens residents excluded).
We are not talking about the price of a PlayStation 3 here - this is education! Education can raise societies to new heights and it can raise poor kids out of the ghettoes - if it's not too expensive. So where is the outrage, St. Joe's? Sure, you grumble to your friends every year when you read about the tuition increases in The Hawk. How has that method been working for you? What major legislature have we enacted to make college cheaper? So here we have an issue on which Democrats and Republicans are in almost universal agreement - it should be easier to go to college. And yet, they do nothing. Why? Because all we do is grumble.
It is a simple equation. Since we do nothing to show we care, legislators have no reason to work on the issues we care about. In a democracy, every citizen has power, if they take it. Time after time in history, all over the world, people have died so that others might have that power. In the first democratic elections in the Congo, the voter turnout was estimated to be 80%. In the last U.S. Presidential elections, only 42% of 18-24 year olds voted. Why should politicians care about tuition costs when less than half of college-age adults care enough to vote?
It is not just tuition costs, and it is not just voting. October was the deadliest month this year for U.S. forces in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands have been massacred in Sudan. The environment is being destroyed. What do you care about? E-mail your congressmen. They listen. Join an organization on campus. Start an organization on campus. Go to a rally. Oganize a rally. These are things they do not get to do in North Korea. The Internet is the most significant invention for Democracy in one hundred years, and we are the ones who know how to use it. Start a blog. Research the things you care about. Just do something besides grumble. When you finish reading this, you can forget about it and let the problems go on without doing a thing about them. Or, you can take a look at the list below of concrete ways you can take the power that is rightfully yours.
We are not talking about the price of a PlayStation 3 here - this is education! Education can raise societies to new heights and it can raise poor kids out of the ghettoes - if it's not too expensive. So where is the outrage, St. Joe's? Sure, you grumble to your friends every year when you read about the tuition increases in The Hawk. How has that method been working for you? What major legislature have we enacted to make college cheaper? So here we have an issue on which Democrats and Republicans are in almost universal agreement - it should be easier to go to college. And yet, they do nothing. Why? Because all we do is grumble.
It is a simple equation. Since we do nothing to show we care, legislators have no reason to work on the issues we care about. In a democracy, every citizen has power, if they take it. Time after time in history, all over the world, people have died so that others might have that power. In the first democratic elections in the Congo, the voter turnout was estimated to be 80%. In the last U.S. Presidential elections, only 42% of 18-24 year olds voted. Why should politicians care about tuition costs when less than half of college-age adults care enough to vote?
It is not just tuition costs, and it is not just voting. October was the deadliest month this year for U.S. forces in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands have been massacred in Sudan. The environment is being destroyed. What do you care about? E-mail your congressmen. They listen. Join an organization on campus. Start an organization on campus. Go to a rally. Oganize a rally. These are things they do not get to do in North Korea. The Internet is the most significant invention for Democracy in one hundred years, and we are the ones who know how to use it. Start a blog. Research the things you care about. Just do something besides grumble. When you finish reading this, you can forget about it and let the problems go on without doing a thing about them. Or, you can take a look at the list below of concrete ways you can take the power that is rightfully yours.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Greg Tomkins
posted 11/08/06 @ 11:33 AM EST
Great article, Chris. Hopefully, it will have an impact on your generation and fellow students. College is a time when people are learning a lot about the world around them and what is important. (Continued…)
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