responses to budget-cutting posting

[Keith Goeringer]

Seelangers,

Yesterday I posted a message to the list regarding potential education
budget proposals.  I have received 6 messages on that posting (some posted
to the list, others sent to me directly), 5 in support of the posting and
1 against it.  (By "for" and "against" the posting, I mean appropriateness
of posting such a message to the list, not necessarily only the gist of
the posting itself.)

It is certainly possible (and perhaps even likely) that there are others
who were upset with my posting to this listserver, and I regret having
upset people.  I don't apologize for it -- I just regret it, since the
purpose of the posting was not to proselytize or support one political
party of the other -- it was simply to make the need for input known to
as many people as possible, and this list seemed the most expeditious
means to that end.

I make no assumptions about anyone on this list -- neither about views
on the government as provider, nor about people subscribing to one poli-
tical viewpoint or another.  The fact of the matter is that higher edu-
cation is facing terrific stresses right now, from both federal and
state governments.  The federal situation is in the news -- the state
issues are not terribly well known outside of any one state.  To give
an example, tuition at UC Berkeley has risen from roughly $700/semester
in 1987 to about $2200/semester this year.  Meanwhile, the government
is considering, to give one example, ending the interest-free status
of student loans while the student is enrolled.  So not only would a new
student have to face higher and higher tuition or fees from the state,
s/he would also have to pay interest on student loans while matriculated.
Which means working (barring independently wealthy parents) even more,
which undoubtedly means graduating later -- which means loans for a
longer period.  This is already having an impact on people in OUR fields.
I know more than one grad student who has left his/her grad program to
escape the burden of debt.  It seems to me that, if certain of these
government proposals are passed, ALL of us will be affected (declining
enrollment, shrinking departmental faculties, department closures)
regardless of political affiliation (or lack thereof).

Enough disk space wasted.  Again, I regret upsetting anyone with my
posting, and I apologize to those outside of the US for subjecting them
to this.  Just to show that I was not singling Seelangers out, I also
sent that posting to friends at various universities across the country
(and a couple abroad), asking them to respond if they want, and to delete
it if they don't.

Keith Goeringer
UC Berkeley
keg at violet.berkeley.edu