Education needs a proper roof over its head!

I just read an online article (in german about how shabby university buildings are in Germany and how german scientists and employees at out universities are embarrassed about this situation of people working in this environment are whenever international visitors come over), which in my opinion described the ultimate dilemma of my studying generation: We paid those temporary tuition fees and we also had the so called privilege to decide where those got spent at our university. Some books were bought, teacher’s assistants employed and usually the semesters coming after ours were the first beneficiaries. There were also strict guidelines on how to spend this precious money, which meant no construction repairs or work per se could be filed for. Rather absurd, since almost every seminar room or lecture hall is presently inhumanely scruffy.

Intelligent computers and color printers were bought. Thousands of books also, which became useless due to internet access. At least some provided more teacher assistants, who significantly improved the studying situation by downsizing their tutorials. But do you study well, when the room you are in makes you feel sick? Some guys might not care. There are those students that don’t care about their study environment. Those who can sit on the most crocked foldup chair and concentrate on a problem, since they are subconsciously using their knees and legs against their front rows to get stuck on the chair. It is a different story for me. My legs just reach the ground and if a foldup can stretch itself more than 90 degrees, I slide off immediately. I sometimes try up to seven chairs to find a bearable angle. This distracts me. It also distracts me, whenever a splinter jams itself through my clothes or skin, especially due to the unwilling sliding. Sitting on one leg sometimes solves this problem, but it falls asleep after a while and some people might understand that this is no long term solution. 

Having no trash bins due to them catching the rain that drips through the roof is also no acceptable long term solution. Even inside chemical training labs you have these stumbling blocks as soon as a little rain cloud appears. This relative humidity does also not work for the experiments that have to be without moistness or air per se. Crumbling walls are also no news to this concrete bunker – at least no one has gotten hit by falling pieces so far. Drafty windows and broken air systems result in me always carrying a jacket in any season. If the outside heat rises to over 100°F (40°C) in a tree’s shadow, I still need a jacket inside. Conversely I am peeling myself like an onion during an ice cold winter, because seminar rooms tend to imitate a terrarium during a hot summer in Hawaii.

But still, construction work bills were not allowed to be paid for by these fees, because they were supposed to only enhance educational situations. As a matter of principle I do understand these introduced limitations for the usage of the tuition fees. What I do not understand is why not even a small percentage can be appointed for construction work. New chairs and dry rooms are necessary for building a good studying atmosphere. The newest technical device does not help, if you can’t see something due to rain inside the building or sliding off your chair every now and then. Why can we tear down a thoroughly scruffy parking building but not fix small problems for study halls? My guess is we are waiting. Waiting for the planned fundamental reconstruction of the whole university. The one that is already running a couple years late and it will take another two to three studying generations walking this concrete labyrinth until it is done. Maybe it is really not feasible to fix anything right before that huge construction enterprise – unless the committee for deciding on any excellence initiative or elite program comes along. Then all possibly walked hallways are repainted and necessary work is done according to their viewing schedule each time they arrive here. A fake appearance of this place, since the areas remodeled or touched up are always the same.

Not until there was leftover money and no more books or tools to be bought as well as no more room for more tutorial sessions, there was the opportunity to pay our heating bill with these tuition fees. Sure, studying in a cold room in the midst of winter is not possible – seems that studying in humid accommodations providing splinters to your best parts is possible. Poisoning our future with asbestos and PCB should not go unmentioned – at least some areas are being reconstructed or cleaned. Sometimes though the warning stickers are simply painted over.

We are in the need of a system. Operated in a sustainable manner. Politicians have only partially understood that investments in our education is an investment in the country’s future. They are just beginning to realize that providing child care will enable us to use the potential of men and women. So universities are left to charge at this problem themselves. But how? Getting the tuition fee back? No thank you. Ask for more tax money? Socially unfair. Ask the ones who studied at the university with a lateron profit for a tribute? Why not. But how exactly?  UniSol35 is a proposition, about which I have written a column already (in german, sorry). A tribute paid by every graduated student, who earns more than 35.000€ brutto later in life: 0.1% of their income would be the monthly tribute to their alma mater for a maximum of 40 years. Especially highly educated students leave Germany to earn more money elsewhere in the world, which makes it socially unfair to the general taxpayer supporting the german system, whereas the ones leaving do not pay german taxes. Even if someone pays a 40 year running tribute every month, they do not cover all costs of their studies. But they do enlarge the tax money budget of a university and enables a good education long term. 

America, Great Britain and others ask for horrendous amounts in their tuition system, which unfortunately selects the auditorium previous to all studies. Australia showed how it can work: Everyone seeking university education can get it. Particularly interesting for those who have not intellectually peaked yet. You pay your tribute afterwards. Same is currently and successfully done in Germany at a private school in Witten. Our education is worth something and needs a good home to build our future. 

What are we waiting for?