UDC President Allen Sessoms

University of District of Columbia President Allen Sessoms and his attempt for a massive increase in UDC tuition rates are coming under attack from UDC students. Yesterday, a protest against the rate increase was attended by 150 people, according to organizers, and protesters plan a sit-in in front of the university from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening. Organizer William Kellibrew wrote in an e-mail that his negotiations with Sessoms have stalled.

The tuition increase is huge. Right now, it costs $3,770 for a student to attend UDC.  If the Board of Trusteesapproves Sessoms’ changes, local students will have to pay $7,000 per academic year, DC Metro area students will pay $8,000, and out-of-area students will have to pay $14,000 (Sessoms’s proposal is embedded after the jump). It’s not hard to imagine these large increase pricing UDC students out of their school.

Sessoms, whose career in New York came under scrutiny when he was appointed last year, also proposes building a 2-year community college in the UDC system in the same presentation to the Board of Trustees. Price for a year at the community college: $3,000. The District does need a community college, and Sessoms should be commended for moving on that. But it’s difficult to see what his massive increase in 4-year tuition does for the University or the District.

Meanwhile, an online petition against the tuition increase has 911 signatures. We’re following this story closely, and will soon have pictures from yesterday’s protest. Sessoms’s January presentation to the Board of Trustees, which explains his goals with the community college and tuition increase, is after the jump.

UDC Tuition Increase Presentation

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 9:37 am and is filed under News, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.