By Shawmaf Zane Khubba
On July 26, 2012, the Board of Trustees of
Montclair State University unanimously voted to increase tuition (including the
“elected” Student Trustee Alex Bychkov) by 3.9%, making tuition over $11,000,
and increasing the trend of making education a privilege of the wealthy and not
a right of citizens of a democracy.
This decision would have passed over in
silence—as intended by the administration, who barred students from speaking at
their meetings—were it not for members of the student activist group on campus,
Students for a Democratic Society, and several of their allies, who voiced
their opposition. The activists showed up at the meeting with dissenting picket
signs in their hands and black duct tape over their mouths, in accordance with
the no speaking rule. They waited as each of the trustees voted until Alex
Bychkov, the student trustee, showed his loyalty to the administration by
voting in favor of the tuition increase. At this point, the dissenting
students, outraged (but not surprised), began to shout: “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!”.
They shouted until the board members adjourned the meeting early and slithered
out of the room. Susan Cole, the President of MSU, left the quickest, before
any light was cast on her extravagant salary and benefits, which have been
increasing just as steadily as our tuition. On her contract for the year of
2011, a $125,000 bonus was justified as an “incentive” for her to stay.
Apparently the incentives of our educators are of no comparable import, as
their salaries and benefits have stagnated, despite inflation.
About a week following the
meeting, several members of SDS, some of whom were not even at the meeting,
received a letter from Dr. Karen L. Pennington, rebuking them for their protest
and admonishing them that further such actions would result in “disciplinary
action”. Moreover, in a comment infused with irony, Pennington informed them
that their actions constituted censorship of the board members. Apparently it
is not censorship to squelch the voice of students at meetings addressing
matters which concern them directly, like where their tuition money is going to
be spent.
