UA launches petition drivE

Undergraduate Assembly representatives said Friday they are launching a massive petition drive which they hope will encourage University Trustees to keep tuition increases low. And student leaders said they also hope the petition, which will be sent to Harrisburg, will encourage state leaders to maintain, or even increase, the University's current level of state funding. Last year, the University raised this year's tuition by 6.7 percent, bringing the cost of an undergraduate education to $15,894. The 6.7 percent hike was the same increase as the year before. UA Budget and Tuition Committee Chairperson David Chun said that the student government, fraternities, and other student organizations have begun collecting names on the petition which will "urge the Trustees to lower the tuition increase for the 1993 academic year." Chun said that as of Friday afternoon, over 500 students had signed the petition. Chun said he hopes to collect signatures from at least half of undergraduates within the next two weeks. The UA will submit the petition to the University Trustees and state officials after Governor Robert Casey's State of the Commonwealth address on February 4. Chun said he expects that tuition will be increased by almost seven percent. UA officials credit last year's petition with helping urge trustees lower this year's tuition increase by .2 percent or about $35 per student. "I honestly feel the work of the UA had a direct impact on bringing [the increase] back down," UA Chairperson Mitchell Winston said last spring. "It shows students can make a difference." Chun said that several fraternities, including Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Alpha, and Alpha Epsilon Pi, have volunteered to help collect signatures. After the lists are checked for accuracy, Chun said that names of students who are Pennsylvania residents, will be separated from the general list and those names will be sent to the state government. The UA will present the petition next month to Assistant Vice President for Commonwealth Relations James Shada and state representatives. Chun said that the UA is "trying to be realistic." The petition does not ask for a decrease or freeze in tuition, but merely a smaller increase. Chun also said that the UA helped persuade the state to maintain $30 million in funding which it had threatened to stop.

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