UW student strike disrupted classes, wasted time and money

Editor, The Times:

As a student at the University of Washington, I can certainly sympathize with my peers concerning the issue of education budget cuts [“Rallies target college funding,” NWFriday, March 5]. I personally already have $15,000 in student-loan debt as a freshman and — naturally — the threat of a future increase is not appealing.

However, I am writing in response to the student strike against budget cuts that took place last Thursday on the Seattle campus. With about a half-hour left in my psychology class, hundreds of angry protesters burst through the doors of the lecture hall with megaphones in hand and called for us to leave class. In my opinion, this was possibly the worst way protesters could have gone about sharing their message with the world.

This is not the students’ problem, it’s Olympia’s problem. Protesters preach they don’t want greater financial hardship thrust into the hands of those who have no finances to begin with, yet they waste minutes of a lecture that people are paying to be in.

I don’t like budget cuts either, but wasting our time and our money in the process ruins the argument. Things won’t change with hypocrisy.

— Melissa Roop, Seattle

Keep universities accessible and affordable

Time and again, the students of Washington have been used as the state’s “rainy-day” fund. Rep. Deb Wallace understands that the only way Washington is going to grow is to have a well-educated population. The only way to ensure this is by keeping our public universities accessible and affordable.

UW’s Mark Emmert’s $1.4 million salary is just one of the reasons why the UW — or any other institution — should not have the authority over tuition. Failures of institutions like the UW to ensure that students retain an affordable education supports the idea that they do not put the student’s best interests in front of them. A public university is a public good and as Wallace puts it so well, “It’s important that we keep ownership and accountability.”

Over 50 percent of our students are first-generation and many are low-income. If House Bill 6562 becomes law, Eastern Washington University would be added in due time, making our most affordable institution available only to the wealthy.

— Kris Byrum, ASEWU legislative affairs representative, Cheney