Push Yourself Too Hard and It Might Get Hot

Please read the entire article here, but one part of the NY Times' article on student protests at various University of California campuses in response to a recent Board of Regents' vote passing a 32% tuition increase for next year is just too good to leave alone:

Indeed, many of the long-term demands are far beyond the reach of the Santa Cruz administrators, including the impeachment of Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California system; the elimination of the Regents’ positions, and an end to all student fees and student debts.

As someone who has recently passed through those joyous years that are American higher-education, I certainly empathize with students who are staring at a 32% tuition increase, but people, people, people, an end to all student fees and student debts? Let's get a hold of ourselves here, ladies and gentlemen.

Sure, it would be fantastic if we could all live in a world where college educations were dispensed like Werther's candy, but this is the real world, and unless the UC system has just made a colossal breakthrough on that whole "money tree" research they were doing out there at U.C. Santa Barbara, I think you're going to have to accumulate a bit of debt in exchange for a diploma.

Come to think of it, though, a lot of professors do wear cardigans like the grandpa in the Werther's commercials. Maybe there's something to that comparison, but I digress.