Tower Editorial – Tuition Free Day: We Get It

A recent trend among colleges across the U.S. is the idea of a “Tuition Free Day” acknowledging the date when the money gained from tuition runs out, and the remainder of the semester is funded by donations and endowments. The Catholic University of America, our proud institution, celebrated this day by reminding us each that we are expected to give more money, just like those generous donors.

And how can you not want to give this school money? On top of what we pay now, the almost astronomical tuition prices that just get higher every year, we have to be like the donors, those mythical generous people that exist on the other side of those anonymous postcards we have to send for a free cookie.

I guess it is our fault, after all, we’re the ones who sent those threatening emails to the ex-architecture professor, costing us a small fee of $1.1 million. We’re the ones who apparantly have to raise tuition prices by 3.8%. It’s us who are mismanaging our finances. We the students are at fault for why we run out of money every April.

It’s a little condescending that the school rubs in our faces the generosity of these donors by putting signs that are full of text on how much a building costs and what is being done for us. Rubbing our noses in our privilega is the best way to get us, the students who are paying ridiculous fees that will cause debt in the foreseeable future, to acknowledge how well off we are, and what we owe our university.

You know what makes a person who makes lots of money want to donate to his or her alma mater? Good memories of friendship and learning in an environment that didn’t try to incovenience the student at every concievable turn. It’s frankly ridiculous to try and ingrain the idea of donating by feeding us cookies and putting up signs in the toliets, so you know what “Tuition Free” means while you deal with the experience of Pryz food.

I suppose the icing on the cake is doing this event a week after telling us we need to pay more money for tuition. The timing is so bad, that I would suspect we were on an episode of Punk’d if that show hadn’t been off the air for ten years and if instead of a prank, the show specialized in creating situations that reminded you of your tremendous debt.

I guess I just have one last thing to wonder. What’s going on with our money? Let’s say that each of the students in the undergrad program secures $51,000 in tuition, and there are approximately 3,600 students in the undergrad program according to our website. That’s just under 200 million dollars and some change. The food isn’t great, the tuition is high, so if you want us at The Tower to stop complaining, send us a check with the apprroximate amount of our tuition, the seniors anxiously await your reply.