The Students are the 99%: An article I hope gets thrown into this week's Carolinian, but don't imagine it will.
An article I hope gets thrown into this week’s Carolinian, but don’t imagine it will.As a chancellor, Linda Brady has been at the helm of radical changes to UNCG. As a school seemingly emphasizing progress, positive change is something that many members of the student body would be welcome to. Unfortunately, Dr. Brady‘s tenure as chancellor, thus far, has not seen an era of positive change and community building that we, as students and workers at UNCG, fully support. Between gentrifying a low-income neighborhood to further increase class sizes, supporting tuition hikes crippling the ability of students from low income backgrounds to attend the university without sizable debt forced onto them, horrifying program cuts, and an inordinate amount of money being shoveled into a basketball program that garners little interest and further strains our school’s budget, it may be time for her to step down.
Glenwood is a historically black neighborhood across Lee Street from UNCG’s campus. The expansion of campus, new dormitories, a tunnel, and police substation, into this neighborhood is not only a waste of campus funds, but a racist expansion. I would propose no expansion of campus, and if one were to take place, for it to be into the Westerwood neighborhood. This would allow people who actually own their homes the choice as to whether or not they want to sell the land, whereas Glenwood residents tend to be low-income renters, easily displaced and evicted by the area’s notoriously slum-lord like landlords.
The Carolinian, the paper that you’re reading right now, is having to justify its existence. This is troubling, as a standard practice in collegiate settings is the publication of a newspaper. Funding was also at stake a few years ago in the School of Music as it combined with the Schools of Theatre and Dance, forcing redundant positions into joblessness. Programs have been cut, or are going to be cut as the last students in the program graduate, notably in the School of Music, the classical guitar major.
Tuition hikes are racist and classist at their core. Instead of endless expansion we should concern ourselves with the needs of our student body, rather than the eternal expansion of enrollment numbers. When tuition increases financial aid becomes harder to get, especially given the new freeze on financial aid as passed on February Tenth, and disproportionately hit low income students and students of color more so than wealthy white students. Middle class students, not qualifying for financial aid, are either saddled with loans, which will remain unpaid and accruing interest at ridiculous rates until the economy rebounds, forces them out of school, or forces an extraordinary burden on their families.
Using the Greensboro Coliseum to house our basketball team is a waste of funds, as attendance at the majority of games would be unlikely to cover the cost of keeping the lights on, much less pay the staff. Every now and then, larger teams will pay to play our team at the coliseum, often deploying underclassmen to play and win crushing victories against our team. This does not fare well for our investment choices or school morale.
This being said, I would call for Dr. Brady to resign her position as soon as a replacement is found. Racist policies implemented by someone who cares nothing for the welfare of our society belong nowhere in a university so intent on fostering, imperialistically, a sense of community throughout Greensboro. We should find a chancellor committed, not in words only, to fostering community throughout the city and society, as a whole. We can only achieve this through advocating for those in our community who are oppressed, and through advocating for universal education for the betterment of humanity.
— Christopher StellaEVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE STATEMENTS BOLDED, I CAN ONLY PREACH THIS SH-T FOR SO LONG.
1. I think it’s crazy that I see this article from a person not even @ my school.
2. I’m graduating. This sh-t isn’t affecting my pockets, but for the lower credit hr students to not have an issue with this is ABSURD to me.
3. BE ACTIVE ON CAMPUS! ATTEND A TALK WITH THE CHANCELLOR! there are ways to let these opinions be heard, but not many ppl step up to say anything.
4. And they wonder why I slowly but surely started to hate this school after BRADY got here. Our Music and Theater majors used to get so much shine on this campus before Sullivan retired and Brady cut funding to them, wrestling, maintenance, professor payrolls, etc.
(via theblacknationalist)
