Kirsten Gillibrand’s views on guns and immigration aside, the new U.S. senator could prove a boon for New York college students among the prospect of budget cuts.
As a House member, Gillibrand voted in favor of last July’s College Cost Reduction Act, which benefited college-goers across the board, from the rules textbook companies would have to follow to the amount of money students could receive from grants. (See Page 1)
Perhaps Gillibrand, then, could prove to be the visionary that Binghamton University President Lois DeFleur seeks in order to prevent a tuition increase of $310 per semester, with 80 to 90 percent of the money going back to the state, not the school. DeFleur has been publicly outspoken in her opposition to Gov. David Paterson’s plans, a rarity for our normally inconspicuous president.
It’s perhaps a rarer situation when students have no problem rallying by DeFleur’s side, but we are striving toward the same end in this one — if tuition needs to go up, then the money needs to provide direct returns to us, not to Albany.
Of course, as head fundraiser, DeFleur is concerned with the tuition increases because BU is losing money it once had, not because of the larger burden placed on students.
Maybe now, with Gillibrand in office and DeFleur as committed to opposing Paterson’s plan as she is, the 17,000 letters advocates of Binghamton University have sent out in support of DeFleur will actually find an audience.
Gillibrand will have to finish her honeymoon tour of New York before any work gets done, and there’s no guarantee she’ll stick to her track record: she’s said she might be willing to think differently than she has in the past, in particular regarding immigration. But that leaves the possibility that her former affinity for higher education could fall by the wayside.
That would be a shame, but when it comes to tuition, we’re grasping at any lingering, hopeful straws we can find.