University of Houston students, it’s time to stop quietly complaining and start talking out loud.
School is expensive, but students have a right and a voice to impact where and how their money is spent. You just have to use it.
The Campus Tuition and Fee public forums will be in two weeks time, but students can start voicing thier opinions today at the first hearings of the Student Fees Advisory Committee (see story, pg. 1).
Although our student fees, $185 a semester this year, are a small drop in the large bucket of the cost of attending UH, these hearings should not be taken lightly. Student input in any venue shows the decision-makers at this University what student priorities really are, as this committee’s recommendation will go before President Renu Khator, who will then make a recommendation to the UH System Board of Regents for final approval.
University administrators do a lot of assuming about what students want out of UH. Let’s make sure they don’t assume anymore. Let’s make sure they know.
The SFAC leaves room in its schedule specifically for public comment. They want to know what you, the student, want and don’t want from student services.
Tell them what Student Legal Services or Campus Activities have meant to you. Question the amount of funding the Student Government Association, Frontier Fiesta or even The Daily Cougar receive from student fees. Or vice versa. Say whatever you want, but say it.
Times are hectic with school, work, family and life, but the student body can no longer sit by and let University administrators and the Board make decisions without its input. Ignorance of student opinion can no longer be an excuse, but it’s up to students to take that excuse away.
Public comment will be at 11:30 a.m. today and Tuesday and 11:45 a.m. Feb. 18 and Feb. 20 in the Bluebonnet Room of the University Center. A complete schedule of hearings for the various organizations funded by student fees is available at our Web site, www.thedailycougar.com.
While you’re at it, write The Daily Cougar at [email protected], leave a note on Khator’s 100 Days Survey at www.uh.edu/100days and clear your schedules for the Campus Tuition and Fee public forums scheduled for the week of Feb. 25.
The Daily Cougar will cover these processes every step of the way, but only the student population at large can make a lasting and meaningful impact on how the University of Houston makes decisions. Only you can make a statement loud enough to make UH decision-makers listen, and the SFAC hearings are an easy way to start. We hope to see, and hear, you there.
