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| Jacque Lenz | The Appalachian |
| Barbara Ehrenreich signs books
following a presentation last Friday. |
Students should be angry about rising tuition
and falling services from colleges, author Barbara Ehrenreich said
Friday.
“I don’t know why [students] aren’t enraged, why
everybody isn’t on buses to Raleigh and Washington D.C. right
now to protest this. Think about the fact we’re paying $1 million
a week for the occupation of Iraq, and we can’t afford to pay
for quality higher education?” Ehrenreich said.
Ehrenreich, who was this year’s Convocation speaker and author
of Appalachian’s summer reading book Nickel and Dimed: On (not)
getting by in America, said that rising tuition was part of a spiraling
budget problem affecting college students.
“It’s partly the states own fault, they cut taxes so much
in the 90s that they have real shortfalls, and the federal government
has cut the states loose. So we see this picture of steadily rising
tuition to make up for cutbacks, and financial aid that does not
keep up. We see students graduating with higher and higher debt,
the average now is up to $18,900,” Ehrenreich said.“Budget
problems also create a situation where some students can’t
find the courses they need to graduate, which is a ridiculous double
bind.”
Another problem, Ehrenreich said, was that more students were getting
degrees to make money, rather than find a fulfilling career
“I also worry about the overly vocational emphasis. I understand
everyone’s scared about the economy and wants to come out with
a job. But the truth is we really don’t know what jobs there
will be. I don’t think you can guarantee your financial security
by what major you’re in. I’d like to see more people majoring
in things they enjoy or are curious about, and that’s probably
as good a background for having to face changes in your career later
on as anything,” Ehrenreich said.
Ehrenreich used her own career as an example. She earned a Ph.D
in cellular biology, and went on to become a writer.
“I might end up doing something else still, there’s nothing
wrong with that. I’m worried that students will go into something
like banking because the income’s good and then wake up one
morning and wonder ‘what am I doing with my life?”
Nickel and Dimed
Nickel and Dimed focuses on the problems of America’s working
poor. To research these problems, Ehrenreich took a series of low
wage jobs around the country.
Ehrenreich said she hoped that students would learn from reading
the book.
“I would hope it would make [the students] more aware of all
the usually invisible people who are doing so much to make their
lives possible. They’re the ones clearing the dorms, serving
the food, working at the restaurants. My big hope is that [the book]
would raise awareness that these are human beings that [the students]
can connect with,” Ehrenreich said. “They may not know
all the ‘whys’ of the problem, I’m not sure I do,
but the first step is to see the problem and to see the humanity
of the people involved, which is about 30 percent of the population.”
Nickel and Dimed caused controversy when selected as the summer
reading book at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
where conservative groups and politicians said the book had a liberal
bias.
Watauga’s state senator, Virginia R. Foxx, dismissed the book
when it was assigned at Chapel Hill.
“If the University wants to be thought of as the number one
university in the country, then they should assign books with more
substance,” Foxx said.
Appalachian has seen no such controversy over the assignment of
the book, or over Ehrenreich speaking at Convocation.
Several Appalachian freshmen said the book had made them more aware,
but had mixed feelings as to its quality.
“I think [Ehrenreich] repeated herself a lot. The book read
like her diary, not fun to read at all, and really boring,”Alex
N. Wallace, a freshman finance major from Havelock, said. “But
it did make me more aware. When I go to a restaurant now, I tip
a lot more, I think of things differently while I’m there.”
“I enjoyed the book, it was a good wake up call to incoming
freshman. It made me more determined to pursue my dreams so I don’t
end up in a dead-end job,” Amanda L. Felton, a freshman international
business major from Raleigh, said.
“I also thought it let people know about the world outside
their comforts.” |
