Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Stop the bickering, talk about the real issues affecting students

[alert type=”green”]Editor’s Note: Following the publishing of The Cougar’s article regarding the Facebook conversation between Student Body President Charles Haston and Texas Senator John Whitmire, CLASS Senator James Lee sent an email to The Cougar to give his opinion about the lack of professionalism displayed in the exchange.[/alert]
james_lee

CLASS Senator James Lee

Earlier this week, Student Body President Charles Haston released a private Facebook conversation between himself and Texas Senator John Whitmire in an attempt to publicly shame the UH alumnus for his opposition to on-campus housing.

As a student government senator and representative of the student body, I’m ashamed of where this conversation has led us. Unfortunately, what seemed like an honest attempt at improving our university has turned into nothing more than territorial pissing on the part of student government, and in addition to the petty release of messages between Whitmire and Haston, this decimates our professional reputation with other elected officials.

When I moved to Houston from the Rio Grande Valley my family and I determined on-campus housing was too much of a financial burden for us. Like many students I was juggling classes and working to make ends meet, and had there been an extra burden of mandatory on-campus housing I may have never been able to attend the University. As a commuter student I came to learn that many other students at the University were just like me, and often they chose UH because it was an affordable option and created no additional financial burden.

Like most commuter students, when I first arrived at UH I was making about minimum wage. Today a student in a similar situation might earn $6,960 — before taxes — per year. If a student were able to find a suitable roommate, the student would then pay around $2,569 per year for a two-person space on campus. On top of that, a part-time student would pay over $6,600 in tuition per academic school year. Bringing the grand total, with an on-campus housing requirement, to $9,169 before books and additional fees.

The numbers alone show how a student would have to go to great lengths and possibly seek financial assistance in order to meet the requirement. If this proposal were to come to fruition, while those less fortunate would be exempt, it could create an emphasis on economic social classes among students, outing those who cannot afford to live on campus and socially rewarding those that could.

Rather than continuing a fight over commuter or non-commuter school status, I think we should continue a conversation with our elected officials about making higher education more affordable and accessible to those with financial needs. However, we cannot work toward this goal by alienating and burning bridges with one of our strongest allies in the Texas Senate.

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29 Comments

  • While I agree with Lee that Haston may not have acted in a professional manner, I don’t think his argument against making living on campus mandatory for freshmen is very strong as there were provisions in the proposal that would give students like himself an exemption from the mandate. Not only would requiring freshmen (who can afford it and have no medical, or religious conflict, and don’t have nearby family homes) to live on campus improve the chances of their academic success, it would mean more money for the university. Everyone thinks that sounds greedy, but money is what makes big schools great and nationally recognized and it’s what UH needs. I’d like to see valid arguments against this proposal published here.

    • Senator Whitmire releasing his and President Khators texts to the chron was not just unprofessional but insulting to her.
      This is simply more evidence of his ego running unchecked
      A career politician who was elected with only about 10% of his district voting for him has the gall to say the SGA does not represent the student body and that this proposal is about greed is absurd

    • to speak generally, the only people who wouldn’t need an exemption from this mandate are the people well-funded enough to succeed anyway. This actually wouldn’t help out minorities/low-income students who need to live off-campus; the very same people who would benefit from improving their academic success in the first place (I question the statistics, but I’ll roll with the punches anyway).

      So you get three results
      1) a majority of freshmen do not exempt themselves (but cultural/economic reasons say they will but hey, if I’m wrong good for UH).
      2) a large group of freshmen successfully apply for an exemption but are now force to pay higher tuition for a mandatory policy that is so lenient, it can’t be enforced.
      3)you force a large group of students to attend JC or other schools (you can’t ignore the possibility that regulation can discourage potential students from enrolling), which
      a- Harms one of UH’s strongest points; diversity
      B- suffer from future alumni donations because transfer students are, surprise surprise, not terribly loyal.
      c- risk losing students that would have enriched the UH experience but are now lost due to “poaching” from other schools.

      And again, this doesnt change the fact that dorms aren’t going to get less expensive for students. You’re just making tuition more expensive

      There’s more I’m sure but it’s midnight and I want to pretend I have a life outside of the internet so…good luck. that’s my two cents..

      • Ok so first, I don’t remember reading anything about increased tuition for students who get exemptions so if that’s the case I would have an issue with the proposal. Second, just because someone is “well-funded enough” to succeed does not mean that they always do. I have seen plenty of students who don’t qualify for any financial aid do poorly their first year because they aren’t engaged or invested in anything on campus. Living on campus has been linked to higher graduation rates, here’s one article on it: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/06/jan/residencehall.shtml
        I don’t think we’d be losing students to other schools because like you said the exemptions are lenient. This is just a way to push students who can afford it and have no solid reason not to live on campus, to live there for a year.

        • if you force freshmen students to live in dorms during their first year, where do you think the money to support these dorms come from? You think UH would just hand them for free? And do you think people will volunteer to handle all the extra paperwork that comes from this bureaucratic red tape? These things cost money; expenses that will be passed on to students REGARDLESS if they take the exemption or not.

          But again, the fact the exemptions are ridiculously lenient makes the effects irreverent anyway (again, Khator herself said that people can exempt themselves from the policy simply by stating “it’s not conducive to their learning). The only people who wouldn’t exempt themselves from the policy are those that find campus housing more affordable to begin with. Everyone else will either exempt themselves (but still have to pay the increase tuition because again, red tape), or will go to other colleges (and yes, the possibility that people will attend is very real since a lot of junior have special transfer programs with other schools. They might even jump to other schools if they view UH’s financial barrier as insurmountable.

          • The “money to support these dorms” comes from the students who live on campus paying for housing just like it does now. I don’t think I understand where you think the money students pay to the university goes. The upkeep and utilities of residence halls is paid for by the students who pay to live there and has nothing to do with tuition costs. The argument that this would cost everyone more doesn’t make any sense to me. The exemption process would likely be more detailed and freshmen will have to give a legitimate reason for why living on campus wouldn’t be conducive to their learning experience. I’m not sure why you think transfer students would be affected by this policy at all because it only applies to first time freshmen, not transfers.

          • I do understand someone would handle the paperwork and it would most likely be the Student Housing and Residential Life office staff. People who already work for the university so I don’t think we’d be paying more for this because they already work at UH it’s not like they’d need to hire another person to process the exemptions.

    • Forcing people to live on campus if they want to go to UH is stupid. Let people live where they can afford to live, and focus on education. UH wastes so much money on worthless sports anyway.

  • 15 hours at UH $5000
    15 hours at HCC $1000

    If money is your biggest concern, do your core classes at a JC then transfer in then you won’t have to worry about the housing rule

    You don’t go to a University as a freshman to save money

    You say you chose UH because of cost and housing would make it impossible for you to attend college yet you willing spent $8000 you didn’t have to spend so you could go to a University instead of taking the same classes at a JC

    And thank you for reinforcing the perception that UH is a college of last resort

    • so the only way to encourage students to enroll, participate, and stay at UH is to enact a policy that would force budget-minded students to attend school elsewhere? Talk about counter-intuitive.

      • If your budget minded, why are you going to spend 5 times the cost for the same classes? Talk about counter-intuitive.

        • I guess I could point out scholarships, grants, ease of convenience (carpooling with family/friends, etc), lack of decent JC programs, cultural/emotional reasons or even the the very nature of Texas culture as legitimate reasons (I’m sure I’m not the only Houstonian that relates distances in minutes/hours).

          But really, it’s because students, no matter what financial background, deserve the right to enjoy the benefits of a four-year education without being forced to burden themselves in even more debt; especially when this supposed mandate would force the financial burden on low-income areas. It’s like people conveniently forget that we are already negatively affected by the massive amount of student debt the country already has.

          And when the “exemptions” are so lenient that one can dismiss themselves from this mandate simply by claiming it’s “obstructive to their learning environment” (I’m paraphrasing Khator’s words here), one wonders whats the entire point of adding making this mandatory other than needlessly adding even more student debt (because installing even more bureaucratic red tap isn’t cheap)

          Sincerely,
          a guy who actually went to a community college before he transferred to UH..

          • 15 hours at UH $5000,15 hours at HCC $1000. there goes your aid argument you don’t need it if your spending less then $1000 a semester.

            There is not enough difference between core classes at UH and a JC to justify paying five times the amount if your worried about finances.

            Your diploma will say University of Houston not University of Houston via HCC, so there goes your culture argument

            So you want the “EXPERIENCE”, well experiences cost money and living on campus is part of that experience

            Why is UH one of the most expensive Universities in the state? Why is UT opening an engineering school in Houston instead of the state using that money to expand the Cullen COE?
            Because for decades its administration and Alumni didn’t care. They came here wearing their orange and maroon shirts, used the university like a whore and dumped her in the gutter when they were done. President Khator is trying to fix 30 years of neglect on DEBT because UH does not have the political base to fight for funds or the alumni donor base to expand the endowment.

            All people like you do is perpetuate the stereotype that UH is a second rate fall back school for people who couldn’t go where they really wanted to.

            Sincerely,
            a guy who actually went to a community college and an online university before he transferred to UH..

            • yawn *perpetuate stereotypes*. If you actually look past your misplaced sense of school pride (really, “use the school as a whore”?) you would even realize that Whitmire is not even against encouraging students to live in dorms. He said he would be open to an affordable option that would incentivize students to live on campus. I would say he could be less blunt but there has been articles explaining that the only reason he was being blunt was because it was an informal conversation between two people that already have a more familiar/intimate relationship (I wont bring up the fact that he was actually force to reveal the text…too late).

              But yeah, let’s pretend that Whitmore, a Democrat whose pushed for policies that support many of the progressive groups at UH, is actually an evil conservative tycoon on a personal vendetta against UH.

              Let’s overlook that your “too expensive? take it or leave it” attitude is exactly the kind of sentiment James Lee and others fear would create a socio-economic schism within the school culture.

              Let’s ignore the fact that not only has Haston alienated one of UH’s strong allies (one whose opinions Khator evidently values), he criticized Whitmire for not listening to the student body when he himself admits that many of the student leader’s don’t actually support his plan. And I’m sure, Khator loves that the SGA president over-stepped his boundaries and complicated this already tense relationship.

              Let’s also pretend that critics of this proposition are a small vocal minority whose concerns about the financial sustainability are really just attempts to keep UH down from competing with “da man.”

              And we’re also going to forget that the proposition, and the way UH pushed this, was so flaky, even Khator didn’t even have enough courage to defend it.

              I love UH and it’s diversity is one of it’s strongest point- one that I’m willing to defend if I feel policies endanger it. But hey, I guess it’s much easier to turn people like me and Whitmire into caricatures than to acknowledge that maybe there is some merit to our arguments?

              sincerely,
              It’s nice to know we can come from similar backgrounds and still disagree. You can have the last word.

  • The biggest irony of all this is that Charles Haston accuse Whitmire of not listening to the student body when Haston himself admitted that many of the student leaders share the same opinion as Whitmire.

    ” I will say that many of them [student leaders] do not support requiring freshmen to live on campus.”

    Add to the fact that Whitmire is a Democrat that has pushed for policies that protect minorities, one wonders who is the one acting out of self-interest?

      • that’s great. that’s not what I’m talking about, but that’s great. He can push any agenda he wants but its stupid to accuse someone of not listening to the student body when he readily admits his peers don’t share the same views as his.

  • I don’t think higher education (I mean Tier One) doesn’t go with affordability side by side. How can you increase the quality of education much higher than we are now still making it affordable for everyone? How come people don’t complain about much higher tuition and fees to go to Harvard or Yale or even UT and aTm when they complain about this policy at UH? You may be saying they are better schools than UH (or they are different from UH). That’s right. We are different from them, but that’s where we want to be or may be better than then. As far as I know UT and aTm are much more expensive than UH. Why don’t you go ask UT or aTm to lower their tuition and fees to make them more affordable for everyone in Texas?
    Forcing freshmen to stay on campus yields better results in many aspects as stated by Haston earlier, and that’s just one of our efforts to make the university better in academics. Plus students tend to develop better ties and commitment to school when they experience campus life in their earlier year in school.
    If most of the nay sayer to this policy (literally commuter) could have support to the university as strong as those who stay on campus like most top universities in the States, I wouldn’t have any problem going against it. However, these commuters don’t tend to have enough proud and support to the school.
    I don’t want UH to remain a commuter school with a great affordability to “everyone” that just needs education and to be irrelevant. Those who need affordability and education can choose other schools or satelite campuses for their core subjects and then transfer to UH later. Why do they expect this great university to just remain as it has been and be there for them all the time? Things change over time. So is our university. Sen Whitmire talks about how things worked out for him 40 years ago. He needs to wake up. This university has to keep evolving by people that really care about it and want it to be greater everyday.

  • Smelly cat,

    1. UH bought alot of toys over the last 5-10 years.
    2. The “School” needs “fish” to foot the bill through on-campus housing.
    3. Cost of attendance for four years at UH is more expensive than Texas a&m but slightly less expensive than UT.
    4. UH has the highest in-state tuition rates of the three school.

    UH http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=758

    aTm
    http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=759

    UT
    http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=788

    5. Relating Nowheresville, Iowa and Houston, TX In terms of how housing relates to graduation is a stretch at best.
    6. The diversity at UH is only skin deep at best. There are plenty of foreign conservative racists that still fit the bill of being a diverse student that attend UH.
    (Indians Vs Pakistani)
    (Hispanics Vs African-Americans)
    (Chinese Vs Japanese Vs Vietnamese Vs Korean)
    7.I have yet to see a SGA president or anyone else from that sham of an organization take a stance that wasn’t the exact same stance as the Provost.
    8.More students living on campus means more expenses of everything related to said students which in turn equals even high tuition rates for everyone.
    9. A-la-carte system anyone?
    (maybe that’s asking too much of such a high powered tier-one school)

    This school is being gutted and robbed by the administration and special interests.

    Cutting the provost pay in half would save 250k a year.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php?page=all

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/08/05/3467601/university-president-minimum-wage-workers/

    • Amen. The administration are a bunch of leeches. Diversity is overrated, especially when students graduate from a “diverse atmosphere” and lack the skills that workers from less “diverse” countries such as South Korea and Finland have. UH is for diversity at all costs. They can only brag about diversity, but cannot compare in actual breakthroughs like MIT, Harvard, etc.

  • Kudos to you Sir Lee. Makes me proud to be a cougar when I see things like this. I agree that an *honest and open conversation about the affordability and accessibility of higher education is a great start. (*I am not sure politicians can be “honest”, just thought I would state the obvious!)

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