President David Skorton attended the Student Assembly’s weekly meeting yesterday to field Assembly member’s questions and concerns regarding University adaptations to the current recession.

Skorton addressed the Assembly on numerous financial issues including next year’s rise in tuition. “We have agonized over the decision to increase tuition. It is quite a bit more than inflation and I am aware of that,” Skorton said.

To manage the effects of this raise in tuition, Skorton described the University’s efforts to appropriately adjust financial aid.

“We have moved millions of dollars from the construction of campus buildings towards giving students financial aid [and] we have greatly increased financial aid for families at or below the mean family income.”

Even though President David Skorton elected not to sign the Amethyst Initiative, a proposal intended to foster discussion about the current drinking age, the debate on the matter did not end with his inaction. Nor does Skorton want it to.

This past Sunday, WVBR 93.5 held a Sunday Forum show featuring Skorton and a panel of students who were enlisted to ask the president questions.

One of the students, Shane Wax ’10 who started a Facebook group supporting the Amethyst Initiative, asked Skorton to elaborate on his decision not to sign the Amethyst Initiative.