Today, I gave a speech before the Student Senate announcing my resignation. Unlike last week, when three senators resigned in protest of Kevin Smiley and the SGA, I made it clear that the only reason I am stepping down is because of a technicality. It is, after all, called the student senate, and as I was informed by Blackboard over the weekend, I am no longer a student at WKU.

I was dropped for non-payment, because apparently the university is serious about that whole paying tuition thing. I am pretty serious about it too. The problem is I simply don’t have the funds. For the first time in my life money—or rather, the lack of money—is an issue. I, Skylar Baker-Jordan, am broke.

So is my family. My grandparents, who I’m convinced were sent from God, have been paying my tuition and supporting me for the last several years. They have been gracious enough to front the cash for me to get an education and pursue my dreams, including paying for me to live over breaks, giving me time to research and write. However, my grandfather retired from Chrysler. If you’ve been paying attention over the last year, you’ll know what that means: we’ve recently been schooled in the principles of recessionomics.

So here I am, halfway through the semester, finding myself unable to find the money to continue. To quote a friend, “I’m disappointed, but not defeated.” I’m going to continue pursuing student aid through FAFSA or, worst comes to worst, take out a private loan for my final semester. I’ll graduate in May, instead of December, which doesn’t put me any further behind in the grand scheme of my life plans.

The truth is, it could be much worse. For many students, it is. I’m lucky. My family is able to find the funds to continue helping me with living expenses, if not with tuition. Many people do not have this luxury. The cost of a college education is much more than tuition and student fees, which are high enough. The cost also includes housing, utilities, gas, food, and countless living expenses, which add up over the course of four years. For some people, even if their student aid covers tuition—and that’s only if they’re lucky—it doesn’t cover the bare necessities of life.

Indeed, most students are lucky to get even their tuition covered. Thanks to the insanity of FAFSA, students are penalized for their parents’ income. Not only do you have to find every piece of tax information your parents have received since birth, but your financial aid rewards are based on an “expected parent contribution,” which is laughably high considering most parents have children still living at home as well as mortgages and other bills they have to pay. Furthermore, some parents refuse to contribute anything toward their child’s education, subscribing to the old adage that “once you’re 18, you’re not my responsibility.” Yes, there are recourses for these students, but they are painfully impeded by bureaucratic red tape.

Of course, if the federal government doesn’t fail the student, the university will. This Friday the Board of Regents will meet to determine whether or not Athletics Director Wood Selig and Dean Kahler, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs—Enrollment Management deserve pretty lofty raises. And by pretty lofty, I mean more than some WKU employees make annually. Selig is up for a $33,520 raise in base pay, which doesn’t count the many bonuses he receives, including a bonus of one’s month’s salary whenever a Hilltopper athletics team makes it to a championship. (He gets a bonus of two months’ pay if the football team makes it, but let’s not kid ourselves.) Kahler is up for a more modest but still outrageous increase of nearly $19,000. All this while faculty and staff got a 2% raise this year.

The university administration didn’t forget the students, though. We, too, got a raise—an 3.8% increase in the cost of tuition for 2009-2010. While students are being forced out of school because they can’t afford their education, Gary Ransdell thinks it’s a great idea to give Selig and Kahler tens of thousands of dollars worth of raises. This is analogous to giving Wall Street executives bonuses out of the bailouts. Those who suffer because of the administration’s mismanagement, much like the American people who suffered because of Wall Street’s mismanagement, are forced to pony up huge bonuses? Come on.

Gary Ransdell seems to be subscribing to the Louis XVI model of governance: let those at the top live lavishly while the plebeians suffer and starve. So long as the administration is lining their pockets, who cares about the faculty who lose research opportunities, the staff who lose much-needed additional income, and the students who lose money to tuition which could be spent on ramen and tuna? I half expect Chief of Staff and General Counsel Deborah Wilkins to issue a press release saying something along the lines of “let them eat cake.”

I will complete my degree next semester, come hell or high water. Hopefully it’ll be with the assistance of a Pell Grant and a Stafford Loan. But if not, I’ll find another way, because I’m determined to finish. I will be WKU alumni. I love this university and the opportunities it has afforded me, though I can no longer afford it. I’m going to graduate and I’m going to do big things. And when, as it does of all alumni, my alma mater asks me for a financial contribution, I’ll give. But before that happens, I’ll make damn sure my money is going towards a department, or a scholarship, or some facet of student life—not to line the pockets of Gary Ransdell and his cronies.