Nearly 1,000 signatures, 80 protesters and veritable slew of e-mails did nothing to sway the 20 members of the President's Coordinating Council into eliminating the graduation fee.
"It was voted that they will not reconsider. We do thank the administration that they did take this into account and reducing the fee, but they would not consider rescinding it at this point. I understand that, to many of you, that is very upsetting," said Adam Meister, Student Government Association president and the student representative to the PCC.
University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., was not present.
Protesters lined the hallway outside of the last PCC meeting of the year to protest the $75 graduation fee, which was announced last week much to the chagrin of graduating seniors and underclassmen alike.
"This isn't an issue of writing a check to the school or paying a $75 fee for the commencement ceremonies, it's an issue of the students' voice being heard when something is being instituted without the students' input," said freshman protester Pat Devney.
Students wanted the administration to feel their presence and their resentment for being disrespected and extorted, in one fell swoop.
Provost Joe Weixlmann said that administrators held three major meetings on Monday, including a special meeting of the vice presidents in which Biondi participated via phone.
It was at that meeting that the University decided to reduce the fee to $50 for all students.
"That really was the best that people could do," Weixlmann said. "The feeling was the fee was identified late in the semester, making it more difficult for people to come up with the money.
"If we got the fee down," he explained, "that would significantly help matters."
Meister said that any of the protesters who were not satisfied with the outcome of the PCC vote could see a member of his executive board to file an injunction with the city.
"We will help you file with the city a temporary restraining order forcing the University to release your records," said Meister. "It is necessary to get temporary judgment from the city court in rescinding the fee. The more students that participate in that, the better for our cause."
The protest, nicknamed the "St. Louis Tea Party" because the fee is "taxation without representation," according to protest organizers, began as nothing more than an initially e-mail-driven reaction to the $75 fee that students felt was a disregard for their wishes by the University.
For some students, the protest was perfect forum to air not only their grievances about the fee, but also about the PCC's reluctance to join the Worker's Rights Consortium.
Biondi has tabled a decision regarding whether or not SLU will be one of the 100 progressive universities to join the WRC, which, according to its Web site, assists "in the enforcement of manufacturing codes of conduct adopted by colleges and universities…designed to ensure that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers."
Graduating senior and Amnesty International President Charlie Crowley was one of the protesters holding signs with slogans like, "No to $75 fees; Yes 2 the WRC."
"I do agree that it is basically a ransom fee for our diplomas. I think that both of these issues speak to the lack of transparency within the University and the disregard for the collective student voice by the administration," said Crowley.
News broke about the fee last Wednesday at the SGA meeting when John Baworowsky, vice president for enrollment, made a public statement before the senate and fielded questions regarding the tax.
Backlash e-mails flooded in from seniors and senators, encouraging students to take a stand against this new financial affront.
Jessica Cusick, academic vice president of SGA, sent out an e-mail last Friday that entreated students to copy and paste a form letter to administrators containing the lines, "In sending this e-mail, I am giving a final plea to this University. Remove the $75.00 fee from my bill. Failing to do so will result in that fee being the final contribution to the coffers of Saint Louis University now and forever."
That sentiment was echoed on a SLU underground Web site, sluvillageidiot.net, which also raised the question, "Is this money all going to the building of the arena?"
Joe Weixlmann, Ph.D., provost, called a meeting with the SGA execs and other student leaders around campus early Monday morning to discuss the issue, the protests and the influx of e-mails that surfaced in student's inboxes over the weekend.
Late Monday night, the provost's office dropped the fee to $50.
"We basically had a discussion in the morning which at the end they said, 'We'll get back to you.' Then I got a call from Phil Lyons, who said, 'Meeting, seven o'clock,' and they went down to $50, and they basically said that's as low as we'll go," said junior protester Jim Swift.
SGA execs planned on delivering a list of students' names who agreed to file injunctions with the city Wednesday morning. The injunctions will take about a week to process. While the protest yielded no amendments to the decisions, students are positive that their statement was clear.
"It's a matter of standing up for what's right and letting the administration know how we feel, and when things happen that aren't kosher with the students, we have a right to take a stand. The principle of the matter is not regarding the fee," Devney said.
