Board of Trustees Tuition Hearing Speech

Each year, the Board of Trustees at Montclair State University allows the students to speak about the rising cost of tuition. Students were given three minutes to speak. When I went up to speak, I turned the podium to face the students and faculty in the audience instead of the board members and administrators. Below is my speech:

Good Afternoon,

I am addressing you, the students and faculty, and not the administrators or the board members because they are not listening. And even if they were listening, they will certainly dismiss these comments from this lowly student as they have always dismissed my comments.

This event is put on to make it look like the administrators and board members care about what the students have to say. They can mention this event whenever a student feels they have representation. However, they do not actually care. For example, students have sent the board countless letters all of which have been ignored. Additionally, when students protested their lack of voice at the other board meetings, and when students protested the tuition increase, rules were changed to ban this form of speech and cops were placed in the meetings. Threatening letters were sent to some of the students involved. So it is pretty easy to conclude that they do not care about what we have to say, even though they are pretending to today.

Rather than beg for lower tuition to people who are not listening, we need to demand lower tuition and demand that we be heard. On October 17th, Susan Cole announced to the Student Government that, if the Bond Referendum is passed, there will be no need to increase tuition. I think we not only need to hold her to her word, but we need to demand more. (And we need to not stop demanding more from those in power until all education is free and all oppression is ended, but that's another speech).

We need to find ways to work together to stop this structure. It will not be easy to challenge it. A student was put on probation by one of our fascist administrators simply for sitting at a table in University Hall. But what if we got one thousand students put on probation or, even better, one thousand students expelled for ousting the administration? Then we might be getting somewhere--the administration would become jammed with its bureaucratic paperwork and would destroy itself.

The board members and administrators claim that their job is to represent the interests of higher education to the state, which is supposed to provide for its people. However, we cannot wait to "convince" these board members and administrators to do this job because their REAL job is to NOT do that job. These board members unanimously voted to increase tuition last summer, and there is no reason why they would not do it again. I am disgusted to say that even the student trustee voted to increase tuition. They do not actively challenge the state because they are comfortable in their positions of power.

And the problem is not these particular board members or administrators. Even if we somehow got rid of all of them, they will be replaced by an endless supply of businesspeople who love to support the status quo and sell their souls for individualistic dignity and money. It is inherently their job to uphold the interests of the state, which are NOT the interests of the students--but are the interests of the elite and the ideological apparatus that works endlessly to keep the people down.

Those in power will not give anything to the people unless they demand it, unless they feel threatened enough in their position of power. And we aren't doing enough to threaten. We need to do more if we want to get anywhere.

Thank you.

Here is video footage of me giving the speech:



Here is the YouTube playlist for the other students who spoke at the tuition hearing: