the post before last was mostly incoherent. I used "tomorrow night" twice in the same sentence. The perils of blogging when exhausted. I apologize for that. This post won't be particularly substantial.

NYU is jacking up undergrad tuition by 5.3%, to around $34,000, $47,000 when one factors in housing and fees. There has been no commitment to reveal the budgetary necessity for such an insanely high tuition or any kind of increased commitment to undergraduate financial aid to meet the difficulties students will have in meeting this increased burden.

Asaf Shtull-Trauring, a CAS junior and a founding member of the Tuition
Reform Action Coalition at NYU, said it is difficult to pinpoint why tuition has
increased beyond the inflation rate, as the university does not disclose its
budget. The coalition, which promotes affordability and accessibility at the
university, is endorsed by 2,200 undergraduates who have signed a petition in
the group’s ongoing campaign for tuition reform.
“This is by default an
issue where many people support it,” Shtull-Trauring said. “I have no doubt that
a majority of the campus is behind the campaign.”
On Feb. 15, the group sent
a open letter to NYU President John Sexton asking for disclosure of the
university’s budget breakdown and creation of a committee of faculty members,
administrators and students to help shape tuition decisions. The university
responded that such a committee exists in the Student Senators Council, and
refused to disclose its budget, Shtull-Trauring said. On Feb. 24, the council
petitioned the university to align tuition hikes with the inflation rate.
Of
the top 50 undergraduate programs in the country, NYU is No. 1 in the category
of students most dissatisfied with financial aid, according to an Aug. 29, 2005
report from U.S. News and World Report.
The coalition is currently drafting
a response to the university about the proposed tuition increase and has also
organized an April 11 rally at Washington Square Park.
GSP sophomore Tania
Nourmand said that though she receives financial aid, she believes the
university could be doing more to help needy students cope with the hike.
“I’m very upset about it because I already have financial aid and it’s
already difficult for me to go to this school,” she said.

This Just In: TRAC has announced a Rally to oppose the tuition hike at 12:15 PM next tuesday, 4/11/06.

And while i have problems with this Inside Higher Ed article on the strike - the headline, the paragraph on 7902 (the adjuncts), the claim that we're in the 16th week of the strike (21st, actually. 22nd as of tomorrow,) I'll link to it anyway. As per the late grades conundrum, Epstein could have spoken to some of the people who were threatened with academic sanctions for not turning in grades. His vagueness on this matter is a boon to John Beckman. That said, I'm guardedly optimistic about the rest of the semester (strikewise, at least.) Like Susan and many others, I very much believe that we can win, that the organizing we are doing right now is preparing us to ramp things up and push the strike forward. That's why I'll be at John Sexton's Town Hall Meeting tonight at 8:30 in the Silver Center's Jurow Hall - to demonstrate to the president that his attempts to crush this strike have backfired and that we will not go away and will not tolerate an agenda which has so threatened collective attemopts to constitute a democratic and just university.