It is very hard to put a price on a person’s education but due to trouble times, Governor Paterson will do exactly that to college students in New York City.
On August 19, 2008, Governor David Paterson slashed 51 million dollars from the CUNY school system’s budget to reduce state spending.
According to www.qcknightnews.com, the plan was introduced on July 30 of this year to address state finances for an economy Paterson could only described as "deteriorating." The governor's planned budgets cuts are suppose save $1 billion in 2008-2009 and $1.6 billion in 2009-2010.
The budget cuts are now reaching John Jay College of Criminal Justice for their fall 2008 semester and frustrated facial expressions can be seen through out the facility.
It is stated on web.cuny.edu that John Jay College still has one of the lowest tuition cost in the CUNY system. They charge up to $510 every three credits but the added increase in tuition combine with the already high prices for textbooks that can go as high as $180 for one book and commute money to the school can later add up for students who are already struggling with the prices.
The most common problem that every student at the college is facing is a $25 raise in the technology fee for this semester. The small increase may not seem that bad on paper but students like Betzabel Felipe who has already taken out a small loan of $1400 to pay for her tuition has something to complain about.
“I am working two jobs and helping my father pay the electricity bills, what kind government doesn’t look out for the students who have enough to worry about,” said Felipe. Despite the added on bills, Miss. Felipe was able to get into the college’s work system program that provides jobs for low-income students but due to the budget cuts, the money that she would receive from the work study job might not be worth the trouble of making time for it.
However, some jobs around the school have not seen a huge change from the reduce budget, for example, the Security department. Although, not everyone can be as lucky as John Jay security guard Daniel Persaud who has been on the job for two and a half years.
“Man, I barely even notice the budget cuts because we don’t get paid through the school. Our state union, DC37, pays us. We are actually receiving a raise of 16 cent soon. The budgets cuts aren’t really affecting us. If the cuts are affecting our department, I don’t know anything about it” said Persaud.
The rest of the students who are getting paid by the school will see a payment change that they won’t like. The amount of money that students received from the school’s work study program has gone down. Workers at the Student Assistants office were force to work the same hours but take a pay cut depending on how long they worked there and how much they got paid before.
“They are hiring less and less people to a point where it is becoming damn near impossible to get all the work I’m suppose to get done that day and I rarely have time to do some homework. I have to consider if I will be able to keep this job” said Stanley Mulu, a Connection Peer Mentor for the school.
According to Mulu, the amount that a student would received two years ago for working at the school was anywhere from 12 to 15 dollars but now the average amount is from 8 to 10 dollars which some students depend on to help them stay in school.
Student Akiele Reason was forced to drop most of his classes due to cut backs on Financial Aid and scholarships funds. “They told me that I was making too much money working at Sears. I don’t get it. I was making the same amount that I did last semester. I’m not paying that entire tuition for five classes, I can only take two this semester,” said Reason. The cut in financial aid has affected many different forms of aid around the school.
Students who have received the New York Merit Scholarship in the past have lost more than half of it. The scholarship was made for students who were able to maintain a 3.2 GPA through out their college semester. The scholarship was originally set at $500 a semester but went down to $239 for some students like Guy Legagneur who has to pay for school for the first time since he entered John Jay.
“I can’t really do anything about this but just keep moving along and pray that I don’t lose more next semester, it was a nice ride while it lasted,” said Legagneur
Not only has the budget cuts added on pressure for students to pay their bills on time but it has also limited their extra curricular activities as well. According to the jjay.cuny.edu, there are currently 17 official clubs in John Jay and they all will be expecting a deduction in funds that helps support their events.
The Student Council Department, who handles the clubs in John Jay, received a budget cut of $30,000 from the amount they had last year. Brunel Jaheum, Student Council Department assistant, stated that the main problem has stemmed from an increase in enrollment in John Jay which has lead to a growth in new clubs. “The council can not take care of everyone,” said Jaheum
Clubs’ presidents and founders are now facing the dilemma of how to keep their clubs from going under due to lack of funds. John Jay Debate Team’s Vice-president Ivan Wilson will have to deal with the problem of figuring out how many students can actually participate in tournaments this semester.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how much we were given. We are trying to make sure these students can have something to look forward to when they do extra research for the team and some of them can’t even go to the debates to watch,” said Wilson
The amount that was asked by the club was $5000 and there were only given $2800 dollar which they need to pay the cost for the student’s travel to the debate, admission fee, and have someone judge the contestants.
“Debating is a skill that can help the students beyond their years here, and some won’t be able to get the full experience,” said Wilson
Not only are the present clubs having trouble but the clubs that are trying to get started are not doing any better. Rachel Ramirez and Sifat Azad started the Fiction Writing Association three semesters ago. The Association is a club made for student to express their artistic side through writing exercises and story development. The two still have not received funding for the publication to put out student’s stories.
The budgets cut has force both club executives to put their club dream on hold for now maybe indefinitely which has ruined other student’s plan for the future.
Sophomore Regina Wong has been looking forward to the club’s first meeting for some time. “I been hearing about it since my freshman year, I know that it take a while to get everything started but all I hear is that they don’t have enough funding.” said Wong.
Both Ramirez and Azad planned to leave the school after this semester to enter other institutions to look for opportunities that the college may not be able to offer, for example, a more solid English major, a more diverse course package, and they have added their club’s struggles to the list.
“The students are getting cheated out of their college years, plain and simple” said Ramirez
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1 comment:
Your story was way better. It was structured better and the sources you used were great. I did think your lead was too general and you should just get right to the point in the lead. Perhaps using your second paragraph and expanding on that would have been a better lead. I still also think you should use sources when you are delivering all that information about the budgets cuts, the wages, and about the clubs. The quote at the end of your story is really powerful I believe, so I think you should put that quote further up in your story. Moreover, you still have errors with plural and present and past tenses. Other than that, the story is good.
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