A new proposal from the SIUC Young Democratic Socialists of America and the Southern Illinois Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America is aiming to make tuition at the school free.
The two groups met at the Morris Library Rotunda on Thursday, Nov. 1 to announce a petition to get signatures in support of the change.
Layne Ellingsworth is a student at SIUC and treasurer of their YDSA chapter, he claims that by making SIUC free to attend it will help Carbondale by bringing more students to the school and stimulate local business.
“More jobs and more students means more money circulating in the local economy,” he said.
Sam Smucker co-chairs the Southern Illinois chapter of the DSA, and says that the enrollment problem at the school comes from tuition being too high.
He said at the announcement that the DSA groups have received a lot of criticism on the big issue with free education; how do you pay for it?
“We think that it’s really the job of politicians to take this on as a priority and then come up with ways to pay for it that does not burden the people of Illinois,” Smucker said.