Student leaders at Washington State University Vancouver plan to stage a mass walkout on Thursday.
Their goal? Send a message to state legislators who have been too quick to hike up tuition rates, in their opinion.
It’s hoped as many as 500 WSUV students — along with some faculty members — will skip class from noon to 2 p.m., at a time when an estimated 1,200 students should be on the Salmon Creek campus.
Students at WSU satellite campuses in Spokane and the Tri-Cities are expected to join in the protest aimed at legislators now meeting in Olympia.
The student government at the main Pullman campus chose not to participate. Similar walkouts were recently staged at University of Washington campuses and at Western, Central and Eastern Washington universities.
Again, the Washington Legislature must close a multi-billion-dollar state budget shortfall. Part of its solution last year was to authorize back-to-back 14 percent tuition increases at all four-year public colleges and universities.
WSUV students first felt that increase last August, and will again next summer. (Two-year colleges, including Clark College, were allowed to impose back-to-back 7 percent tuition hikes).
It’s an undue burden that has derailed many schooling and career plans, student leaders say. Now is the time to push back, they say.
“The purpose is really to show that students can organize,” said Nick Ferderer, WSUV student body president. Volunteers will hand out fliers this week to remind students, he said.
On Friday, Ferderer addressed the WSU system Board of Regents, who held a routine meeting at WSUV. He said the tuition hikes have hurt affordability and access for students. “You can’t really have one without the other,” he told officials, laying out the protest plans.
“It shouldn’t be combative in any way,” Ferderer explained. “We don’t want to come across as divisive or negative” against WSU officials, he said.
In fact, Ferderer got a big hug from WSU President Elson Floyd, who discussed the ongoing state budget woes.
While Floyd believes universities must preserve control over “pricing decisions,” he said, “I want to make it clear — we shouldn’t balance our (state) budget on the backs of students.”
Ferderer also got commitment from WSU regent and Clark County resident Mike Worthy to attend Thursday’s rally and listen to affected students sound off.
“Personal stories will be heard,” Ferderer said.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
