About 20 students gathered on a snowy Kogan Plaza at about noon Wednesday to voice their disapproval of an expected rise in tuition for the 2003-2004 school year.
“Study abroad has been cut, (the University is considering) trimesters. All this stuff is about money,” said junior Graham Murphy, who is running for Student Association president and helped organize the rally with Students for Accountability.
Sophomore Paul Kendrick, who also helped organize the rally, said he collected more than 1,000 signatures by Wednesday evening on a petition opposing a large tuition increase. He said SA President Phil Robinson will present the petition to University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Trachtenberg at a meeting with student leaders to discuss the University’s budget for next year on Thursday.
Though a chain e-mail advertising the event predicted a “mass assembly of students,” the crowd did not at any point number more than 20 people, with few attendees staying for the duration of the protest.
Organizers said that while they had distributed more than 1,200 cards publicizing the event the day before, the inclement weather conditions may have turned many supporters away from the outdoor protest, and several students said they thought the protest had been canceled.
Those students who attended said the proposed tuition hikes dismayed them.
“At CI they give you GW Monopoly, GW candy bars, GW lifesavers,” shouted Kendrick, who helped organize the event. “Why not spend this money on better security? Why not spend money on engaging professors (who) will boost the academic environment?”
Organizers urged students to sign the petition, demanding the University reexamine its budget, institute an increase in financial aid along with any increase in tuition and make attendance more affordable for middle-class students.
Stephen Harris, membership coordinator for the Black Student Union, told passers-by he was considering transferring because he did not feel GW was living up to its rising cost of attendance.
“We pay like we go to an Ivy League school, but it’s not an Ivy League school,” Harris said. “The price is going up but things aren’t improving. We’re not even in the top 50 schools in the country.”
Other students voiced concerns regarding financial aid and the University’s motives.
“As a student who’s not on any kind of financial aid, this is going to be a big shock for me and my family,” sophomore Nick Hill said.
Despite the low turnout, Kendrick said he was pleased with the results of the petition drive, which continued throughout the day in the Marvin Center after the protest ended a little before 1 p.m.
“We were obviously a little disappointed that the snow kept our turnout so low,” Kendrick said.
-Alex Kingsbury and Julie Gordon contributed to this report.
