Emerson College hosts professors, classes, and price tags that are hostile to students of color, of low income, and of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Emerson is not unique in this way, but it does market itself as a uniquely progressive institution, celebrating its ranking as the most LGBT+ friendly school in the nation by the Princeton Review. And some people believe that this means Emerson cares about us. And they do— if by “us” you mean the 65% of the Emerson population who are white, and especially if they are class-privileged. 

Emerson hosts LGBTQ+ friendly policies because I, and people like me, make up a significant portion of Emerson’s wallet. Our retention pays for Lee Pelton’s $800k a year salary. It pays to purchase and maintain empty buildings. It pays to employ professors who refuse to use nonbinary students pronouns and make statements like “Black people should get over slavery.” Emerson does not care about us. Emerson cares about our money.

As a white transgender man, I am accepted (both as a student and as a transgender person) into Emerson not because of Emerson’s “progressiveness,” but because my money is as green as anyone else’s. I do not lose my class privilege and white privilege because of my transness. At the end of the day, I can come up with the money to pay the ever-rising tuition that acts as a class gateway and ensures that “acceptance” at Emerson doesn’t extend into structural change. Emerson does not care about the LGBTQ+ community. It cares about the money we can give them.

Emerson cares about my “acceptance” because it is profitable to them, but it doesn’t give a damn about my liberation, or the liberation of any group.

This is obvious in the way Emerson has increased tuition for returning students by 4% every year for the past five years. This is obvious in the way Emerson handles financial aid, only meeting 50% of  student need on average and ignoring student phone calls and emails. This is obvious in the way that Emerson continues to be a deeply racist institution. This is obvious in the way that I have seen too many of my friends, equally as deserving of a college education as I am, leave Emerson because they have been priced out of a college they once considered their dream school.I’m sick of being told to trust an administration that does not care about its students. I refuse to wait for watered-down change to come from the higher-ups. It’s time for students to organize. It’s time for a Student Union. It’s time for us to care for each other— because if we don’t, no one will.

To the Students reading this:
As exemplified by the recent scandal revealing bribery to gain access to prestigious universities, the people who control our colleges and universities care more about making the most money possible than young people’s education. Higher Education sets its ideals upon values of exploration, seeking knowledge, and expression. Instead, modern universities exist as job preparatory programs. Extended, unpaid internships to build enough experience to hopefully leverage a job once leaving. While providing hours of work and sinking tens of thousands of dollars (our own or a banks) into the school, the school takes our money and decides where they would like to use it. 

Frankly, I am sick of being buried under a mountain of debt. I am sick of watching the people I care about lose the education they worked so hard for because of another bout of tuition raises. I am sick of seeing the most passionate students I know make the choice between taking more hours at their job, or losing their access to Emerson altogether. I am sick of watching friends not eat for days because they can’t afford food and a T pass. Enough is enough. 

We need an organization that pushes fearlessly against the administration until it is understood that they are pushing people out, and putting people in danger. We need an organization that doesn’t stop at one issue, but is a place for any issue to be discussed and demanded. We need an organization whose goal is for systematic change in the way our education is structured. We need an organization that hears the needs of students and acts on it. We need an organization that is organized by students, for students, and nothing else. 

We are students for the expansion of rights for students. We are students for racial justice in higher education. We are students for justice for all people on the gender spectrum. We are students for the end of exploitation of students. We are students for equitable treatment of staff and faculty. We are students for the end of the injustice of graduate students’ exploited labor. We are students for the cooperative ownership of education. We are the Emerson College Student Union. 

To the education profiteers reading this:

Emerson College’s motto is “Expression necessary to Evolution.” This is us taking control of the evolution of this institution. This is us telling you what we need. You can ignore us for now, but not for long. We will scream, rally, sit-in, protest, scheme, and rattle our cage until you hear us. You will curse our expression. That will not stop us. 

Only Evolution will.

Emerson costs too much. That’s not controversial, 62% of Emerson students receive some kind of financial aid to help with the cost. It’s a well known and publicized issue. Why, then, did the College raise Emerson’s price tag 5% last semester without raising financial aid? Maybe Emerson didn’t have enough money to shoulder their new debt from the Little Building, maybe they wanted to buy the former Griddler’s for $1 million, maybe… Or, maybe the people who run Emerson are greedy assholes. That could be possible too. The truth is, the college never asked us. They might’ve let us know through Lee Pelton’s email or maybe they told the SGA representatives that some 30 of our classmates voted for whenever voting happened. I don’t know, I live off campus like at least half of us and always seem to miss the memo. Maybe I’m just uninformed. Maybe you believe their official reasoning for the tuition rise. But, do you think what they told us is what they presented to the board? Shouldn’t they tell us that? Emerson College never asked permission before raising our tuition. If they had, maybe we would know why, and maybe we would have decided it wasn’t worth it. 

So, why does College cost so much? Why raise tuition at all? If you listen to Lee Pelton TV, you’d hear how college is an inefficient service that costs too much by nature. The idea is that instead of costing too much, college is too cheap for what we get. “Financial Aid hasn’t risen this year but it’s largely kept up with rising tuition rates” is practically the Party Line (repeated by Lee Pelton himself on WBUR last semester). But we were never asked if we wanted the extra buildings, or the Alexas in the elevator, or new Macs, or flourishes designed by outside marketing firms. Maybe if we didn’t buy those things we wouldn’t have had to raise tuition. We might have decided to trade a couple grand each for new space for orgs or for the e on our desktops, but the point is we never got a choice. Sometimes we ask nicely during the president’s office hours. Sometimes we put together protests that demand change and sometimes they listen to at least some of our demands but they don’t always. Sometimes they choose to ignore us. We don’t have that choice. We have to pay. 

We can choose whether to go here or not, but either way we’re at their mercy. Not all of our credits transfer and if we don’t finish we have nothing to show for our money. For many that isn’t really a choice. Sometimes you need to cough up the extra 5%. Why? Our money is paying for the school and for the salaries of the people running it. What if we all stopped paying? What if we had voting representation on the board in exchange for our money and could all veto every decision? What if whoever decides to buy new buildings had to tell us why we needed it, and how much it would raise our tuition, and we could say no? What if we banded together and said no more tuition raises? What if they asked permission before they used our money, or we all stop paying? What if they needed to listen? Let’s unionize Emerson Undergrads. Let’s start today. 

At the heart of it all (and the heart of our Union) we want to bring class equity to Emerson College. Too many of us have seen our classmates get priced out of this College. Too many of us struggle to stay as ever-climbing tuition pushes us into debt. And too many of us feel the crushing weight of these problems but feel powerless to solve them.

Our care for each other and ourselves is what makes this heart beat. We cannot claim student power on an administrative level without also claiming the power we have to support one another. That’s why we created a meal swipes exchange group so students without meal plans can get swiped into the DH. It’s why we created a Disorientation Guide sharing the truths we wish we had known when we entered Emerson. And it’s why we’re committed to expanding our on-campus food pantry to include more food and healthier options, because every student, regardless of income, deserves a nutritious meal.

We are creating and demanding these forms of aid because we know from experience that Emerson will only meet our cries for change with a promise of “conversation.” The time for “conversation” has passed. The conversation they want has already happened. It gets rehashed every year when the inevitable news of another tuition increase hits. We have sustained this conversation on our own without response for long enough. We need policy change. We need a tuition decrease. We need voting representation on the board of trustees. These necessary changes aren’t going to come from appealing to the benevolence of an institution that has proven itself time and time again to have none.

They are going to come from us– the students, banded together in all of our power. Emerson’s administration knows what they are doing to us. They just don’t care.We, the students, must care for each other. Capitalism depends on our alienation from one another and ourselves. Our college thrives on it. Acts of kindness and connection are radical acts of resistance. This October, let’s challenge ourselves to look out for one another. Let’s build this union on a foundation of solidarity.