Former state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger visited campus last week and discussed higher education. His comments were topical, political and ill-informed.
Mr. Rauschenberger addressed the fact that it takes 5 to 6 years for most students to graduate. This is an accurate statistic, but Mr. Rauschenberger’s solution is nonsense. He suggests that schools should be encouraging students to take 18 to 21 credit hours.
A regularly admitted student only needs to take fifteen hours a semester to graduate in four years. The problem for many students is not that they are taking too few courses, but that they have too little money. Many students struggle to pay for 12 hours.
The neglect of higher education is bipartisan. Many of our state lawmakers, including the governor, attended public universities at a time when state funding was about 50 percent. Funding has been reduced drastically since then. Don’t let the legislators get away with this “I got mine, why don’t you work harder” attitude. The reality is that many of you are working harder than students did 30 years ago. The playing field is just not the same. The state legislators are abandoning you, robbing you of the support that made their lives better, while simultaneously inferring that you are lazy.
A change in policy requires that all students make it clear that higher education is a priority. Inform yourself about your representatives’ stand and let them know that you are watching them. Make education a hot button topic. Do not be meek about this. Do not accept gimmicks as a substitute for real support.
The faculty cannot fight this battle for you.
You deserve better from the state, let them know how you feel.

J. B. Stephen
Associate professor
Department of Mathematical Sciences

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