At This Moment

This week Sabina Santiago and Ariana Costakes asked:
Governor Patterson has proposed more budget cuts for CUNY (among countless other public institutions) to fill the state deficit. How would additional tuition hikes affect you?

"Asking for me and other students to pay, literally, for the failings of neoliberal economic policies and wantonly bellicose foreign policies is not ok, Gobna. How will it affect me? It will effectively screw me harder than I am screwed already. Currently I live in a vermin-infested basement and my bank account is overdrawn. Maybe if Patterson gets his way I'll have to start eating the vermin, because dropping out of school again for financial reasons is not an option."
-Ingrid Feeney

"Further hikes would make me have try and find new ways to save money. One way I recently discovered (at the BC cafeteria, in case anyone is interested) is that if you bring your own cup and tea bag, you can get hot water for free! Just no milk or lemons or then you have to pay!"
-Meaghan Keeler

"It will make me drop out of school."
-Jason Lee

"More faculty might be dismissed, this will reduce the classes that are offered and overcrowd other sections."
-Mariel Acosta

"I really wanted to take additional classes, but with the tuition hikes I'm not sure I will. Also, if CUNY is getting to be expensive, I might consider looking for scholarships at private universities and getting my graduate degree there."
-Christina Squitieri

"My parents pay for my tuition, and I don't get financial aid. My brother is also in college, so this would affect my parents more because now they would have to pay more money for the both of us."
- Victoria Lai

"Gov. Patterson is a ---- (I leave that part out). Tuition hikes will effect me because now I will need more money to go to school, and I am already struggling. I fear that I won't be able to afford school soon."
- Zahraa Alawie

"Tuition hikes?...what else? If tuition goes up how will I afford to also buy my books?"
- Anonymous

"I have financial aid, but I fear they would soon cut down on that, and then I will really be in trouble. I believe the amount of loans that students take out are going to increase if this happens, and loans are never a good thing. We have to see what happens."
- Sarrah Diaz