Block sweet block

Ok, so it’s a little early for nostalgia, but it’s only fair that we keep you posted.

In last week’s cover story, Eric Pilch explained the passion and rationale that accompanied the University of the District of Columbia’s Board of Trustee’s decision to raise tuition at D.C.’s only public university.

Guess City Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8 ) didn’t read it. Fresh out of the hospital from a kidney transplant operation, the former mayor had intended to pass emergency legislation to prevent UDC from changing its open enrollment policy and require that its Board take 45 days to reevaluate their decision to nearly double tuition as of Sunday evening. Loose Lips predicted a 3-10 vote.

But by Monday morning, the Washington Post‘s D.C. Wire reported that they expected Barry to withdraw his emergency bill in favor of introducing “a permanent bill, which takes longer to make its way into law and requires fewer council members to get approval.”

At the end of the day, Barry never showed up the the City Council meeting—doc’s orders. He withdrew his original bill, but has yet to introduce his permanent legislation. We’ll keep you posted.

Update: Marion Barry has returned to Howard University Hospital, and aides expect him to remain there until the week is out.

Photo taken from Flickr user dcdailyphotos under a Creative Commons license.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The University of the District of Columbia is getting a new president, after a lengthy search process that included unprecedented input from Mayor Adrian Fenty. The Post‘s take on the new prez, Allen Sessoms, makes him sound like a stand up guy who doubled the endowment at his last school, Delaware State. That information comes from his resume, though, so beware the unreliable narrator.

The article fails to mention that in 2000 Sessoms resigned the top post at the City University of New York’s Queens College under pressure from the school’s board of trustees, who claimed he misled them about how much money he had raised for an AIDS research center.

As much as I’d like to believe that new leadership will bring positive financial and academic change to UDC, I’d feel better if the incoming president didn’t have a contentious past. Fenty’s tacit endorsement would mean more if the summer jobs program wasn’t all screwed up. If this doesn’t work out, don’t say Vox Populi didn’t warn you.