A snippet from a recent article from The Seattle Collegian, the student paper at Central:
Faculty’s struggle to stay afloat not only affects their day-to-day lives, but it also directly impacts students. If teachers aren’t paid enough to sustain themselves, how will they be able to cultivate the best learning experience for students? Every student enrolled at SCC has probably noticed a feeling of vacancy that lingers throughout the school. Classes have been cut, programs have been cut, and during certain hours of the day, it feels like you’re walking in an abandoned building. We feel the effects of underfunding everyday.
Sophia Bruscato, an international student at SCC, explains that lack of funding has hindered her passion for singing and taking music courses. “The entire building dedicated for music students and classes, which has hundreds of keyboards, pianos, rooms, and a theater, is completely closed except for third-party usage of renting the theater for random events…the entire building and its resources are useless for hundreds of students who need them and would benefit from them,” Bruscato says. She also laments the shortage of in-person classes. “By summer,” she says, “I will have paid nearly $40,000 to sit in my basement watching online classes. Out of the 73 credits I’ve taken/am taking so far, only three of my classes were in-person. It is obviously not a matter of COVID anymore, it is lack of funding and lack of resources.”