Zhikun Chen A02 week 4

This week's readings mainly focus on issues of universities. UC schools just increased tuition recently with the lack of financial aid in the first place. So many more middle-class students can't afford the tuition fee now and they will have to go elsewhere for the higher education. More importantly, schools are not only raising the tuition fees but also corporating with other business to increase the students' expenses on campus to make more money. Schools are being capitalized and they are all trying to maximize the profit from students. I have a friend who got into Cornell University but he couldn't go because of the high tuition fee. So, he went to a state university instead, which was a big drop. High education shouldn't be just for the upper-class students. Education shouldn't discriminate poor people from rich people. The way UC Davis dealt with student protest really disgusted me because I was also a part of middle-class students. UCD didn't care about students feelings and they behave just like those monopolists. Money is on top of everyone else's benefit. The reason why UCD reacted that way was that the mess caused by students' protest was being paid by the school itself but the new Mcap financial aid program didn't cost the school a single penny. They even forgot about that. UC Berkeley was wise. Both schools suffered the same amount of damage but Berkeley apparently had a better response. I just hope that universities can be less of a market place and more of a school. Obviously, the school can make a profit and reinvest in better facility and research. As of right now, they are just too greedy.

Image Source: https://www.highlandernews.org/15203/tuition-hikes-have-got-to-go-potential-uc-increase-is-threat-to-students/
Q: Is financial aid mostly loans or cash that students don't have to pay back?