Students hold rally to protest tuition increase

Approximately 20 students gathered in Hahn Plaza Monday afternoon to hold a rally and sit-in at Bovard Auditorium advocating for a tuition freeze after multiple attempts to voice their concerns to administrators resulted in failure. The rally came just days after a screenshot went viral exposing a nearly $2,000 increase in tuition in the coming year.

When protesters arrived in Bovard for the sit-in, they had a heated dialogue with Tim Bessolo, associate vice provost for Student Affairs who guarded the door. They were frustrated that their demands could not get through to those in charge, so they resorted to sitting in Bovard for four hours. DPS locked down Bovard, took down the internet so students could not post on social media and did not allow protesters to use the bathrooms with the hopes that they would eventually leave.

Bessolo responded to students wanting to see President C. L. Max Nikias by repeating the fact that Ainsley Carry, vice president for Student Affairs, had office hours on Thursday. He made sure that students could not enter Nikias’ office.

“[Ainsley Carry] works directly with the provost, who oversees a large majority of the areas, so they’ll bring those concerns to him,” Bessolo said. “We’ll stay as long as students want to stay … till the building closes.”

Protesters felt that the only way to get the attention of administrators was through an organized demonstration. Those in attendance said they came to have their voices heard as to why they advocate for a tuition freeze.

“We’ve tried diplomatic routes, we passed a student government resolution and the administration hasn’t listened to us,” said Tessa Meurer, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience. “Direct action works, so we have to use this route unless they listen.”

The Undergraduate Student Government unanimously passed a resolution to freeze tuition in November, but it was not implemented by the university administration. Victor Sherman, a senior majoring in environmental studies said that although the amount tuition is increasing doesn’t sound like a lot on its own he’s going to be having issues paying his tuition off.

“$3,000 [sic] is a lot of money, and just ‘cause we already have a huge tuition it’s not a large percentage but it’s a lot of money,” Sherman said. “I don’t make that much a year in my part-time job.”

Provost Michael Quick said that tuition increases are at a historic low in a statement regarding the tuition increase on March 3.

“Tuition increases at USC using 5-year averages are at their lowest in 50 years — over the last five years tuition has increased an average of 4% annually,” Quick said.

The event was organized through Facebook, and more than 400 people indicated that they were going.

“We have various student organizers who put this rally together because they felt that an increase was really unjustified given that we were in conversation with the University about tuition and we weren’t notified,” said USG President Rini Sampath, one of the authors of the tuition freeze resolution. “We are doing fundraising, we have University students who can’t afford this increase if it is $2,000 per year.”

Many came to show support for students who could no longer afford their education.

“I’m just showing up to support. I saw it on the Facebook group, and I agree that the tuition hike is ridiculous. I think that we can show solidarity in numbers and that you can’t keep ignoring the student voice,” said Emily New, a freshman majoring in English.

Event organizer and Director of Diversity Affairs Moira Turner opened the event by riling up protestors to a common cause.

“We are charged the price of having to go to school here,” Turner said. “Education is a right, not a privilege. Join with me to tell Nikias and the trustees and all others that have decided to raise tuition without consulting the student body that we will not stand for tuition hikes.”

They chanted various phrases from “Hey, Hey, ho, ho tuition hikes have got to go,” to “Nikias, step off it” at a group of cameras and reporters. The Department of Public Safety stood around the students and observed.

Once protesters had garnered attention from onlookers they began to share personal stories. Organizers stressed that personal stories could change administrators’ opinions more than numbers.

There were similarities between these personal anecdotes. Many of the students said they worked multiple jobs, taken on student debt to avoid dropping out and skipped meals in order to keep up on tuition. They were worried about how to pay for all of their extraneous expenses, like books and housing.

Some had prepared speeches beforehand while others volunteered themselves after hearing about the plights of fellow students. Thirteen protesters shared personal stories and noted the cyclical nature of higher education, where many students work late and have less time to study and thus are rejected from scholarships because their grade point average decreases.

Following the student organized rally and sit-in at Bovard, a town hall forum was held at the United University Church to recap the events of the day for those who were unable to make the main event.