Get stiff lip, not tuition tears
Increasing college costs not new idea so get over it

My father has a propensity for telling stories. During family dinners and discussions or whenever he feels he can make a point, my dad jumps in with a story about his life. Reading a recent Associated Press story on the increasing cost of higher education brought to mind one of his tales.

While, as a child, he did not actually walk five miles uphill in the snow to and from school, he did work his way through St. Paul Bible College, in Minnesota, during the 1960s. His job at a local restaurant enabled him to pay his $3,000-annual tuition to a private university. His father, a factory worker in Akron, Ohio, paid the remaining balance on his blue-collar salary.

Needless to say, dad’s stories date him a little. As I try working my way through TCU, I laugh at my inability to pay my tuition, and I earn $9.50 an hour. While it may stir feelings of animosity, tuition increases no longer come as a surprise.

The AP reported that the annual cost of a four-year private college is now $22,500. While the consumer price index rose only 2.7 percent, college tuition rose 5 percent. With annual tuition at TCU nearing $400 a semester hour (at $390 for the 2000-2001 academic year), the current cost inspires flinches in students and parents.

Students griping about tuition is nothing new to the university. On Sept. 3, 1983, the TCU Daily Skiff reported that then-Chancellor William Tucker held a forum for parents and students to voice their anger at TCU tuition reaching the ungodly sum of … $140 an hour? Imagine their chuckles at current TCU students.
Tuition stood at $314 a semester hour during the 1996-1997 school year and has since inflated to $390 a semester hour. When applied to a student enrolled for 30 hours a year, tuition has increased $2,280 in five years. And that figure does not factor room and board.

During the December 1999 meeting of the Faculty Senate, Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari said if TCU remained on its current budget model, it would run deficits beginning in 2002. Despite a near three-fold tuition increase in 17 years and an endowment of over $800 million, TCU is currently looking at deficits.

Tuition increases are inevitable as much as the sun rising in the east. Ferrari said TCU will continue its policy of an annual 3 percent tuition increase. While this news may not cause students and their parents to jump up and do the happy dance, tuition increases are a necessary function of the university. TCU figures show that over 52 percent of the university’s operating budget is drawn from students’ tuition payments. Tuition provides faculty and classrooms, without which a university would not be much.

While the cost of a TCU education may force students to forgo that Playstation2 or limit their film viewing to once a month or even leave students facing loans that will haunt them into their 30s, the long-term benefit of a diploma provides a certain cost benefit analysis.

While students griping about tuition may be an impulse, look at it this way — in 17 years, alumni can laugh at students paying $580 a credit hour.

Matt Stiver is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Fort Worth.
He can be reached at (m.r.stiver@student.tcu.edu).

Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader announced Tuesday in St. Louis that he filed a suit against the Commission on Presidential Debates after being denied entry to the Oct. 3 debate in Boston as well as a FOX News interview.

Nader, who held a ticket for the first debate, furiously attacked the actions of the commission in the media following the incident, calling it “an indefensible act of arrogant power.”

Gaining as much as 6 percent of the popular vote in recent polls, Nader has criticized the commission feverishly since he and Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan were denied the opportunity to participate in the three nationally televised debates. The commission said candidates needed 15 percent support in national polls to be included in the events.

The commission made a huge mistake by not allowing Nader into the debate. He had a ticket and had every right to be there.

If he began disrupting the debate, then by all means remove the man and have him arrested.

Not only would that solve the problem, but it would not have painted a good picture of the candidate in the media, which I am sure neither Republicans nor Democrats would mind.

Nader and Buchanan would have certainly added interesting moments to the presidential debates, and quite possibly, would have garnered more support for their campaigns.

However, the truth remains pretty clear cut: Nader nor Buchanan will be the next president of the United States.

They simply do not have the support they need.

Many Americans were unsure of which candidate to support before the debates. Now, some that were sure remain undecided.

So, Nader has taken on a new campaign: the “don’t waste your vote” campaign. He wants voters to use their consciences when voting.

Surprisingly, it makes sense.

Sure, Nader is hoping that this campaign will bring the votes to him. It might bring a few. It might bring a few to Buchanan, and it may even bring a few to Mickey Mouse.

But the logic behind it makes sense.

Many Americans feel disillusioned by the current presidential campaigns. They don’t feel confident in any of the candidates or their policies, and they are worried about what the next four years will bring. They feel helpless in their vote for the presidency.

So, why vote?

Well, Nader will tell you to vote for him because by securing 5 percent of the popular vote, his party would qualify for matching federal funds in the next presidential campaign.

That’s a pretty good reason if you’re for Nader, and maybe equal funding for all parties is a serious enough issue that you would consider sending your vote his way.

In that case, your vote could make a very big difference.

Nader is right — using your conscience to vote is what voting is all about.

I’m not going to go on and on about how voting is your right and civic obligation as an American, although it is.

I’m not going to tell you whom to vote for. I’m just going to tell you to vote.

For many of you, this is the first presidential election that you are able to participate in. Take it seriously.
And even though you may think your vote doesn’t count or isn’t important, it will be a great reflection of where you stand.

It’s time to show America that our generation has something to say, so go out on Election Day and say it.

James Zwilling in a sophomore news-editorial journalism major from Phoenix.
He can be reached at (james_zwilling@usa.net).

The world is not a peaceful place today.

Men are fighting somewhere in Gaza. People are dying now in the West Bank. Bombs are thrown at women and children. Gunfights last for hours.

Despite a cease-fire agreement brokered by the United States, the Israelis and Palestinians persist in waging war against one another as differences in religion and ethnicity continue to breed prejudice, exacerbating the already existing problems in the region.

But these prejudices don’t have to exist.

And that is the focus of the message to be given by Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, leader of the American Muslim Society.

Mohammed will present the lecture “Commonalities: A World View in Contemporary Comparative Religion” 1 p.m. Sunday at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium, a message discouraging the existence of religious prejudices and stereotypes.

With the conflict in the Middle East, Mohammed’s lecture is relevant. It may be useful in understanding some of the factors shaping the dispute in that region.

With the conflicts in our own communities, Mohammed’s message is essential. It may be useful in understanding the factors that shape our own prejudices and stereotypes we embrace about religions in the Middle East as well as at home.

As fighting continues in the Middle East, it is important to remember that we can’t distance ourselves from the violence. The bombing of the USS Cole demonstrated that.

Moreover, we cannot close our eyes to the religious, racial and ethnic problems we face every day.

Mohammed’s lecture is an opportunity to explore these problems and develop a better understanding of the prejudices we endure and those we hold.

The lecture is free. The message is priceless.

No, the world is not a peaceful place today. But take some time to stop and consider why. We still have tomorrow.