From the debate surrounding the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee’s proposed tuition increases to Gov. Rick Perry’s latest presidential campaign ad, the following quotes are among the best from the last few days.

“You know, we’ve all lost our train of thought before, but not many have done it on national TV. Now if you want a slick debater, I’m obviously not your guy.”
— Gov. Rick Perry in his ad that aired Thursday during Perry’s interview with Jay Leno. Many criticized Perry after, in the Nov. 9 GOP debate, he could not name the third agency of government he would eliminate if elected president of the United States.

“We will not stand for these tuition increases, nor will we sit as passive cogs in an interest-driven loan-vending machine. … It is our Board of Regents and state legislators who have systematically legalized unregulated tuition hikes as well as the encroaching privitization of our entire university system.”
— Occupy UT members protesting at the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee’s open forum Wednesday. TPAC recommended in a memo to President William Powers Jr. on Monday that tuition be increased by 2.6 percent for resident undergraduates and by 3.6 percent for nonresident undergraduates and all graduate students.

“There is a fundamental conflict between the welfare of the institution and the welfare of the board. I’d rather be fired … trying to seize an act to make the university better than watch it on the glide path to mediocrity.”
— Richard Lariviere, president of the University of Oregon and former UT dean, after getting ousted by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education on Monday, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Lariviere, who was the dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1999 until 2006 before leaving to become provost of the University of Kansas, became unpopular with the board after increasing faculty and staff salaries and proposing the flagship university break off from the system, among other things, over his tenure. The board made the decision despite wide faculty and student support for Lariviere.

“There have been a number of well-publicized incidents involving Dr. Lariviere that have eroded trust and confidence with the Board of Higher Education. He disregarded Board direction on more than one occasion.”
— Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on the firing of Lariviere, according to a statement.