Opinion

Editorial
'Truth in Tuition' prgoram needs revision to accomodate transfer students

With Valentine’s Day just passed there are probably countless boxes of chocolates lying around your apartment. Many of those chocolates will look delicious to you at first glance but the moment you bite into one you realize you grabbed the sweet morsel which hid the most horrid of cream concoctions imaginable. The same principle applies for Illinois’ “Truth in Tuition” program, which much like those chocolates looks oh-so-good on the outside but really stinks when you get to the core.
By and large the principle behind “Truth in Tuition” is with good intent and does indeed help students and families with the ever spiraling upward costs of higher education. Students paying just as much when they leave after four years as they did the first time they stepped foot on campus as a student sounds like a pretty good deal, eh?
So long as you aren’t a transfer student, that is.
The inherent flaw in the design of the program rests in the fact that the guaranteed tuition is based on a structure that takes into account a student being at the institution for the most common time span of four years. The problem is that many transfer students, such as those who traditionally made up the heart of UIS, don’t take four years to graduate but rather two and a half to three years with some even graduating after only two.
Through the process of “front loading” the tuition, a phrase most commonly associated to the program and downplayed by many university administrators as taboo rhetoric, the idea is to balance the cost – but it only works out positively for four year students.
For example, thanks to some investigation and calculation by The Journal’s own Tom Cronin which appeared in our February 2, 2005 issue, it was discovered that transfer students planning on graduating two years after their first semester will pay approximately $328 more in tuition under the new plan than those transfer students still under the old system.
While this amount may not be enough to break the bank given the already soaring cost of tuition it boils down to the principle of the matter. What good is the “truth” in “Truth in Tuition” if it is cloaked in smoke and mirrors?
With the UIS campus still overwhelmingly comprised of transfer students who come from other institutions the subject could not be more relevant. Change needs to occur in order to stop the fleecing of hard working students who transfer in to an institution and complete their course work in only two years.
While several ideas have been floated such as a reimbursement program, which has been said to be too costly and complicated, the fact of the matter is that “Truth in Tuition” needs to be amended at the statutory level in order to correct this defect which ruins the intent behind what should be a sound program.
Transfer students should not be saddled with the cost of a traditional four year plan when their tenure here is much shorter. It is simply a shame to punish the hard working transfer student who concludes their studies on time after transferring to a public institution.
While it is not our belief that this byproduct of the program was intentional, we do believe that the time has come for something to be done about it so that the problem is rectified and the original objective is restored.
Until then, “Truth in Tuition” is nothing more than a soured cream encased in a sweet shell.

The First Amendment: giving the right to compare Nazis to 9/11 victims
By Carly Hawkins - Columnist

The United States is a young country. Americans think of castles in terms of Disneyland, royalty in terms of beauty pageants and dynasties in terms of the New England Patriots. Nonetheless, we do have a legacy. An important and vital one, at that.
I’m not referring to the fact that we’ve blessed the world with baseball, Mr. Potatohead and nuclear weapons.
I’m talking about the First Amendment and the Constitutional guarantee of the right to free speech.
Certainly, this was not the brainchild of the framers. The foundation of what we think of as inalienable goes back to the Magna Carta in the 13th century, Martin Luther in the 16th century, and Milton and Spinoza in the 17th century. The Bill of Rights built on to that foundation in the late 18th century.
There have been lags in this guarantee of noncensorship, and they all seem to come in wartime, when “loose lips sink ships” and when paranoia and sensitivity run rampant. Just recently, we’ve seen another example of this, as University of Colorado professor and SSU alum Ward Churchill has been run up the flagpole by the governor and state legislature of Colorado, as the Wisconsin legislature condemned him, and as he was forced to resign the chairmanship of his department.
Luckily for my word limitations, there is just one that describes this entire scenario: ridiculous.
Disagree with what Churchill says in comparing 9/11 victims to a Nazi figure. Feel free to write something yourself calling those comments in to question. But in the end, Churchill gets to say what he wants, even about sensitive spots like 9/11. He gets to publish what he wants if someone is willing to put it out there, without regard to whether he’s a pseudo-intellectual hack or a genius.
It all comes down to this, really: freedom of speech is an all or nothing sort of deal. I’m not referring to the “yelling fire in a crowded room” scenario so much as the fact that people are allowed to say stupid things. People are allowed to have those stupid things published. Because sometimes the stupid thing – please see Galileo, and his crazed assertion that the sun was the center of the universe – is the right thing. For that discourse to take place, we have to have a marketplace of ideas, and that marketplace must include everything in order to make sure we’re getting the best there is to offer.
Look, I can’t say that I admire the comments that sparked this debate in the first place. But if the sanctions against Churchill continue – and they include an investigation in to his removal from CU as well as an appeal by the Wisconsin state legislature to block a speech at a college there – the legacy of our collective commitment to free speech will have been irreparably betrayed.
What I want to say about this, in the end, is said much better by Aaron Sorkin. So I give you a quote from “The American President”:
“America isn't easy...It's gonna say, 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.'...Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”

Discussion of the feasibility of Greek life on campus

The Greek Life Committee, a subcommittee of the SGA, is charged with exploring the potential, both negative and positive, impact of Greek letter organizations on the UIS campus community. The following represents the first in a four part series, where members of the committee examine the pros and cons of various aspects of Greek Life. After the guest commentaries have been presented, the committee will develop a survey to be held concurrent with spring SGA elections, to assess the student body's sentiments regarding Greek Life at UIS, after which the committee will report to the SGA and campus administrators with their findings and recommendations.
PRO Did you know that 43 out of 50 major corporations in the United States are run by men and women who were involved in fraternities and sororities while in college? Eighty-five percent of people on the Fortune 500 list were engaged in a Greek organization during their collegiate studies. Fraternities and sororities have transcended from the stereotypical dumb jock club into student organizations that know the importance of getting ahead. Often critics accuse Greek life of interfering with students’ priorities- teaching students to focus more on rush week, social events and keggers rather than schoolwork. This myth is undoubtedly refuted in countless areas of research. At the University of Illinois at Champaign, the grade point average of all Greek members is 3.2, while the average GPA for the entire university is a 3.15. Although we do not see a large discrepancy, we can see that the cloudy stereotype of the “Beer for Brain Cell Greeks” is no longer a valid classification. It is well known that most Greek organizations have strict sanctions surrounding members and their academic performance. The most prevalent form of punishment is usually a probation that prohibits members from partaking in any social function until the member’s grade point average is raised. Many fraternities and sororities put their members on mandatory study sessions, tutoring plans, and weekly reports from professors. The requirements to join a Greek organization should be indication enough that academics are not something to be taken lightly. Most fraternities require anywhere from a 2.5-3.0 GPA, while the majority of sororities require a minimum 3.0 GPA. Members must hold those GPAs throughout their reign as a Greek. Fraternities and sororities provide an outlet of endless opportunity to college students. The social interaction teaches Greeks advancement and networking. Greek organizations constantly insist on strong academics and leadership from every one of their members. We need to look past the myths and stereotypes and explore the positive aspects that Greek Life could bring to UIS.		CON Who can forget that indelible figure Bluto from Animal House? He was the life of the party, smearing his chest with mustard. But Bluto had a dark side too; he didn’t do well in school. His GPA was the less than enviable 0.00. And while in the land of lampoons, he ends up a senator, in reality it’s unlikely. Surely no one with less than stellar grades can be entrusted to a position of such importance…right? I will be the first to admit that “Animal House” does not represent the reality of Greek life, but it does display the worst-case scenario. Greek organizations do tend to have minimum GPA requirements for those that rush- the oft-stated standard of 2.5. While many may find this a less-than-lofty goal for membership in such an exclusive organization, another question remains. What happens after membership is granted? There are usually GPA requirements for active members. If a member falls below the GPA requirements, there are consequences like required study time and missing out on social events. But just how effective is the punishment? Being in a frat is like having a part-time job you can drink at. There are countless events that you are required to attend. In fact, some weeks a Greek organization requires members to stay at the house every night unless they are writing a paper or working on online homework. Classes alone can push some students to the brink of insanity. When you toss in an over-demanding Greek organization, a student might break down. We only need to look at our sister school for some startling statistics. 40% of the Inter-Fraternity Council at UIUC, which includes 45 Greek organizations, has average GPAs below 3.0. We could always require more of our Greek organizations, but there are very real concerns about their impact on academics at UIS.

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Editorial

The First Amendment: giving the right to compare Nazis to 9/11 victims

Greek Life on Campus

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