OPINION & EDITORIAL
Iraqis to UW for free? Bring ‘em on
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by Gerald Cox
Monday, March 3, 2008
It’s that time of year again. Madison is warming up, the 90-plus inches of accumulated snow are beginning to melt as spring break beckons coquettishly, and various student organizations and campus entities are putting the finishing touches on possible referenda for the ASM spring ballot.
Thankfully, this year’s most popular possible referendum promises to be far less expensive than the misguided and costly fall 2006 Student Union Initiative. The Iraqi Student Project would cost students an extra $1 a semester in tuition and is probably the worthiest initiative to grace the ASM spring ballot since I began attending school here.
Initial reactions to the Iraqi Student Project were framed by my misunderstanding — and apparently, those on the comment boards of The Badger Herald — of the initiative. As a representative on the Student Services Finance Committee, I was slightly amused to think that the Campus Antiwar Network and those championing the project were suggesting that we use segregated fees to fund a student’s education. As every last one of my readers is sure to be well aware — what with their amazing dedication to seg fee policy — segregated fees are not allowed to offset tuition, even that of needy Iraqi students. Yet it would seem the powers that be over at CAN were aware of this stipulation. For the Iraqi Student Project does not call for an increase in segregated fees, but in tuition itself.
At $2 a student per academic year, a fund of roughly $82,000 would be used to fund the air travel, tuition, board and a few expenses of five Iraqi students. In effect, the referendum will form an $82,000 scholarship fund for Iraqi students, paid for by a $2 dollar a year raise in our tuition. It’s a bold referendum, to be sure, and one that I’d say is not only far more affordable than the aforementioned Student Union Initiative, but also far more agreeable and altruistic.
The logistics of such a project are beyond me. The realities of recruiting such Iraqi students, and, as Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp has commented upon, the visa and admissions process may well prove a challenge to any number of Iraqi students. Providing an in-state tuition waiver will provide even further challenges to such a project. But those and other logistical hurdles should not deter us.
Anyone voting for such a referendum must also assume CAN did its math correctly, that $82,000 is enough to cover costs on our end and that this isn’t some twisted publicity stunt meant only to serve as a political statement on the ASM spring ballot.
Of course, no one really votes in the ASM elections, so why bother making a statement when no one will read it?
While much of the criticism of the project has mistakenly focused upon the legality of using segregated fees, a few of its critics have expressed concern about the precedent we set by targeting a specific group of students while neglecting another. A referendum that targets Iraqi students without addressing the plight of displaced Sudanese students, or even lower-income students from Wisconsin, certainly begs the question: Who do we fund?
Any CAN member will undoubtedly tell you about the terribly dilapidated condition of the Iraqi higher education system. They will tell you, correctly, that university professors are being targeted and murdered, that many university classrooms are now gutted by bombs. But, as the argument goes, there are scores of nations whose higher education systems are just as forsaken. In the face of the plethora of students needing our help, should we be paralyzed by our inability to help them all?
Being unable to help some students should never preclude us from helping others. Further our nation has a greater responsibility to the displaced students of Iraq than we do to those of students in other nations. Were it not for our nation’s injudicious invasion of Iraq, these Iraqi students might still have a university system largely untouched by the senseless sectarian violence that mars the education system in Iraq.
I applaud the idea behind CAN’s efforts. There are far more expensive and frivolous things we could be forced to spend our money on. Two dollars a year is little to ask for a cause so worthy.
Gerald Cox (gcox@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in economics.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 1:44am):
Why don't we raise tuition $2000 a person and bring in 5,000 Iraqis?
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 2:27am):
How you gonna support something without knowing the logistics of it? When CAN fucks this up and no Iraqis arrive, they're going to run away with our $82,000 and, instead of returning it like a responsible student org, they'll stage some protests and call it "awareness."
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 9:04am):
2:27AM, perhaps you should refrain from commenting in the wee hours of the morning.
The notion of CAN absconding with $82,000 is absurd and impossible, as it seems like the money would go towards a tuition-waiver program and not their own bank account.
What could they do with all that money, anyway? Buy a lot of really nice poster boards for their next protest?
Find a better argument.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 9:39am):
Ahhhh, how like Liberals to pursue a Tax on each students tuition, to raise money for a guilt reflex 'goodwill' project rather than through private individual charity and/or their own hard work.
If the Campus Antiwar Network really HAS a network, let them get off of their elitist leftist CANs and go raise money for the Iraqi Student Project themselves. Perhaps CAN could solicit funds from the local military recruiters, while 'on-site' for their antiwar protests? Or maybe just skip the mewling and puking protests and donate that time, money, and otherwise wasted effort to directly supporting their ISP proposal?
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 10:32am):
The money isn't kept in a bag somewhere you schmuck. It's in UW's account. How exactly would CAN run off with it?
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 10:52am):
"Being unable to help some students should never preclude us from helping others. Further our nation has a greater responsibility to the displaced students of Iraq than we do to those of students in other nations."
While this may be true, don't you think that our nation has an even greater responsibility to the people IN the United States? You say it yourself that the funding could be used to send a few needy WI students to college, too. I think we should focus on that instead of getting people here from a foreign nation which may prove to be next to impossible anyway.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 11:10am):
5 students... that probably means the United States has taken in 5 total refugees from Iraq.
You know, if these students were smart, they'd go to Scandinavia and get FREE health care and FREE college.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 12:47pm):
pretty soon they can have their own footbaths and gym times too!
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 1:45pm):
It doesn't go to 2:27, ya blowhard. It would go to the university to be used for funding the education of however many Iraqi students they decide to bring here.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 4:26pm):
Why should we educate terrorists? Those wacky liberals are at it again!
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 4:31pm):
If and when the logistics get worked out and presented to the student body, i think its a bold and valiant effort. We as students should do no less than support the mission of the public education system, and honestly, we can't really be so opposed to two dollars a year...we spend more on bad beer sometimes.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 5:08pm):
World Against War
The antiwar movement is strong and organizing fast. There's going to be an antiwar protest held in a few weeks that will be the largest in human history. Still have yet to read a single blurb about it, but yet the people know...How did the movement organize this many countries and places? http://WorldAgainstWar.org
Anonymous (March 4, 2008 @ 3:49am):
4:26PM, I sincerely hope I never meet you in person.
Your ignorance is not becoming, oh 'sane conservative'.
If you knew anything about the Iraqi Student Project, you would know that the individuals considered for the project undergo a rigorous screening process to ensure their intellectual aptitude and yes, lack of criminal history.
However, even UW students when applying to this fine institution have their criminal history checked.
Associating 'terrorists' with Iraqi college students living in refugee camps is ignorant and demonstrates faulty logic. By this way of thinking, all Americans are imperialistic invaders who kill innocents.
Spread your phobic racist ignorance elsewhere.
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