Editorial From Johnson State

Let me tell you a story:

"On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing … enjoying the jungle's great joys … when Horton the elephant heard a small noise," writes Dr. Seuss in "Horton Hears a Who."

Hearing this small noise, Horton, a beneficent elephant, abruptly stops his splashing in the cool pool of Nool and searches for the noise.

"‘That's funny,' thought Horton. ‘There's no one around.' Then he heard it again! Just a very faint yelp as if some tiny person were calling for help.'"

This faint sound – this tiny person calling for help – Horton found, was coming from a floating speck of dust he could just barely see. Horton realizes that this tiny person calling for his help is a Who who lives in Who-ville on that speck of dust, and this small town is in danger of being drowned by skeptical kangaroos and monkeys who can't hear a sound.

Consider us that town. We live on that tiny speck of dust, in danger of drowning with only a bumbling elephant for a guardian. Our state colleges have long been overlooked, and without ears to hear our calls for help, VSC students will  continue to bear the burden of tuition at rates far, far higher than the national average.  We are ranked 50th in the nation for public funding, relying on 87 percent tuition to finance our colleges. In 2001, the state appropriation supported 24 percent of our colleges. Now, that percentage has dropped five figures. The Vermont State Constitution requires the state colleges to be an affordable option for students with primary funding from the legislature, but we know that's not the situation.

Next Thursday, Oct. 20, the Faculty Federation and United Professionals will host a rally on campus open to the public to focus attention on the lack of public support for the Vermont's state colleges.  This rally is intended to educate students, staff and faculty – to give them a voice so that they may call out to the State Legislature and tell them just how bad this really is.

But, we've tried calling out to them numerous times before; we just haven't been yelling loudly enough. Towards the end of Horton's battle to save the little town, his situation turns grim. Horton is confronted by a militia of monkeys and their ring master, the persnickety kangaroo. "‘You're going to be roped! And you're going to be caged! And, as for your dust speck … hah! That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil!'"

"‘Boil it? ...' gasped Horton! "‘Oh, that you can't do! It's all full of persons! They'll prove it to you!'"

And they did. All the citizens of Who-ville gathered their tom-toms, tin kettles, brass pans, garbage pails, cranberry cans, bazookas, clarinets, oom-pahs, boom-pahs, flutes and voices in unified testimony, in a plea for their life. This sacacophony the kangaroo heard, and quickly haltered her warpath and monkeys. "‘From sun in the summer' said the Kangaroo. ‘From rain when it's fall-ish, I'm going to protect them. No matter how small-ish!'"

I'm not suggesting that Legislature is deliberately bent on drowning the VSC, but the water is rising at our feet and of our situation, they don't yet seem to fear. We need to unify our voices and yell, "We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!"