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NEWS
| October 22, 2003
Tuition and Fees
Petition signatures may be discarded
The names were collected at The
Market without a manager’s permission.
By Amber
Tafoya
The Shorthorn news editor
More than 400 student signatures on a petition against administrators’
proposed tuition increases might not be used because of the way
they were collected.
An employee posted the petition against tuition increases Tuesday
afternoon on the counter of The Market in the University Center.
Students, faculty and staff have a right to petition on campus but
must get permission from the Office of Student Governance and Organizations
if they are not gathering individual signatures.
The employee, engineering junior Hassan Hhmed, said he did not receive
permission from his manager to post the petition.
“A few students came in and left the forms on the counter
and asked if I would ask other students to sign the petition,”
he said.
Jeff Sorensen, Student Governance and Organizations director, said
that because the signatures were collected in a public manner they
might not be used.
For example, permission is needed before gathering signatures on
the University Center mall because it is considered solicitation.
“You do not know the people you are talking to, and they are
not coming up to you to sign,” he said.
Hhmed was approached by Student Congress Parliamentarian Richie
Stuart, who asked him why he posted the petition in the store.
“I just went up to buy an envelope, and I saw they were soliciting
the petition,” Stuart said. “It is unethical, especially
when they are promoting ignorance.”
He said students have been signing the petition without a complete
explanation of the issue behind it.
Jeni Hall, who began circulating the petition, has permission from
Student Governance to gather signatures on the University Center
mall near Nedderman and Pickard halls.
As of Monday, the political science and broadcast communication
sophomore had gathered more than 1,500 signatures and said she will
collect more to reach her goal of 5,000 before the Tuition Review
Committee meeting Thursday.
Hhmed said he hopes the petition will convince administrators to
give students more time to adjust to the increase.
“I am not against a tuition increase. We just need more time
than one semester,” he said. “They should do it gradually,
maybe two years.”
The tuition increase proposal under consideration asks for a $15-per-credit-hour
increase in the spring and an additional $20-per-credit-hour increase
in the fall. Nursing students would see an additional hike of $10
per semester credit hour for upper-level and graduate courses in
the spring. Engineering students would pay an additional $10 per
credit hour for upper-level courses and $20 per credit hour for
graduate courses.
Hhmed said he wanted to give students a chance to voice their opinions
on tuition deregulation before it’s too late.
“This is about free speech and an opportunity to have a say
in this matter,” he said.
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