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Students Rip Likely Tuition Increase, Call Rules Chairman Balfour 'An Embarrassment'

By Tom Baxter

InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(3/15/10) With a cry of "Chop from the top," and signs that said "Raise hell, not tuition," students from colleges and universities across the state demonstrated in front of the Capitol Monday morning to protest cuts in the state’s higher education budget.

"We all know there’s probably going to be some cuts in the end but what we have to look at is what are we cutting. What kind of impact does it have on Georgia?" said Trevor Southerland, a senior majoring in political science at Kennesaw State University.

The demonstration turned out to be on a day when the legislature was not in session. It drew a crowd approaching 300, however – two or three times the size of the crowd which turned out last week for a protest against the proposed tobacco tax increase which featured national anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.

Rep. DuBose Porter and his wife Carol, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, spoke to the student group, along with several Democratic legislators.

But this was primarily a student-led affair. Will Avery, a graduate student in history at West Georgia University, said the demonstration was primarily organized on Facebook, which has been the case with other student demonstrations around the country.

Avery said members of the group, Georgia Students for Public Higher Education, have been in contact with some of the leaders of student demonstration in California, where some demonstrations over the past week have become violent.

"We’re trying to remain peaceful here and show our professionalism," Avery said.

Meanwhile, a more sedate group of student government leaders from around the state met with House Speaker David Ralston and planned to attend an afternoon meeting of the House Appropriations Committee.

One target of the demonstrators was Senate Rules chair Don Balfour, who has been quoted as saying tuitions at state colleges and universities are "ridiculously cheap."

"Our tuition is not embarrassingly cheap but he is an embarrassment to Georgia," Southerland said.