While en route to a variety show in central London Thursday, the Rolls Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla was attacked by a band of student protesters, reports CBS News. The couple was left unharmed and was able to proceed to the theater where, according to CBS reporter Neil Sean, Camilla quaffed a “stiff brandy to calm her nerves.”
The above-noted college students, whose seething resentment has been fueled by the government’s plan to hike tuition fees by as much as three times the current rate, let their baser impulses get the best of them, unfortunately. For, in addition to the Prince Charles attack, some demonstrators lit fires and defaced government buildings.
I’m reminded of the UCLA student protests of last year. They too were up in arms over exorbitant tuition fee increases. Though students did not attack any motorcades containing American luminaries, they did manage to barricade the doors of Campbell Hall, where they conducted a student sit-in.
However, despite the sit-in and spirited demonstrations in the streets of Westwood, the UC regents saw fit to approve a 32 percent tuition increase. As it stands now, annual in-state UC tuition fees is over $10,000 – and that doesn’t include the cost of housing and books.
The above-noted college student protest cases present something of a dilemma. On the one hand, it is understandable that students would be outraged by such extravagant tuition increases. On the other hand, universities are faced with budget deficits and must increase fees in order to remain operational. Some claim that the solution lies in a more equitable distribution of the financial burden. For instance, the university could save costs by instituting staff furloughs and other campus cutbacks, rather than increasing tuition fees by such a wide margin.
I would like to submit a proposal that many would consider to be wildly unconventional. In my view, a college education is not all it’s cracked up to be – and some people will suffer absolutely no harm if they don’t finish college – or skip it altogether.
Sure, in order to enter some professions, a college degree is mandatory. But plenty of industrious and bright people succeed in life without a four-year degree. Many successful businesses, for example, have been started by high school and college dropouts. I know a number of people who fit this profile, in fact.
Did you know that Bill Gates is a college dropout? He’s done pretty well for himself, despite that fact that he did not finish college. And while there are not that many college-dropout billionaires, there are plenty of college and high school dropout millionaires.
Sources:
Attack on Prince Charles, Camilla Shocks U.K., cbsnews.com
