Spring Break
Students are most powerful voice in our government
Will Rogers
Issue date: 2/26/09 Section: Forum
I'd like to offer a rebuttal to ASOSU President Ryan Mann's comments about the event Eleven-hundred Dollar Day which took place in the MU Quad last week. The event, hosted by the OSU Americans for Prosperity, gave students passing through the quad the opportunity to sign a petition asking for a one-year freeze to student fee increases.
Our President said he was "disappointed" by the amount of student energy going into an event against student fees. He felt that presenting an opposing viewpoint to the current level of student fees was dividing the student population. Unfortunately, it would appear that our student government's president has succumbed to the same notions that dominated the philosophy of the Bush administration - that somehow citizen involvement that presents ideas contrary to the government's philosophy is bad.
The first comments Mann brought up had to do with the services provided by student fees. It should be noted that our event did not target any particular institution, nor did we try to take anything away; we simply stated that we don't want our programs to expand for one year. A great number of students that passed by our event agreed with us. The primary function of college is education, and all the advanced facilities available in the world won't do students any good if they can't afford to go to college in the first place.
Mann then goes on to suggest that our time would be better spent "… lobbying our state and federal representatives to decrease the cost of post-secondary education and increase the availability of financial aid." Why should the students of OSU not take responsibility for their own costs? If money is our issue, shouldn't we take responsibility at the local level first before trying to pass the costs of our irresponsibility onto the taxpayers? President Mann seems to want us to address the issue at every level except the one he is responsible for.
Most of us are in the final stages of our education before entering the work force. We should be learning how to set responsible budgets with the money we have instead of expecting bailouts from our rich Uncle Sam.
Our President said he was "disappointed" by the amount of student energy going into an event against student fees. He felt that presenting an opposing viewpoint to the current level of student fees was dividing the student population. Unfortunately, it would appear that our student government's president has succumbed to the same notions that dominated the philosophy of the Bush administration - that somehow citizen involvement that presents ideas contrary to the government's philosophy is bad.
The first comments Mann brought up had to do with the services provided by student fees. It should be noted that our event did not target any particular institution, nor did we try to take anything away; we simply stated that we don't want our programs to expand for one year. A great number of students that passed by our event agreed with us. The primary function of college is education, and all the advanced facilities available in the world won't do students any good if they can't afford to go to college in the first place.
Mann then goes on to suggest that our time would be better spent "… lobbying our state and federal representatives to decrease the cost of post-secondary education and increase the availability of financial aid." Why should the students of OSU not take responsibility for their own costs? If money is our issue, shouldn't we take responsibility at the local level first before trying to pass the costs of our irresponsibility onto the taxpayers? President Mann seems to want us to address the issue at every level except the one he is responsible for.
Most of us are in the final stages of our education before entering the work force. We should be learning how to set responsible budgets with the money we have instead of expecting bailouts from our rich Uncle Sam.
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