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OPINION
| October 3, 2003
Editorial/Our View
Watch Your Wallet
We’re not yet convinced
proposed increases are justified — and you shouldn’t
be either
Speak now on tuition or forever hold your
peace.
Proposals floated by the Tuition Review Committee this week call
for a 76 percent increase in designated tuition rates by next fall
for most courses — and that’s on the low end. Engineering
and nursing students would see a 120 percent increase during the
same period for upper-level courses, and engineering and nursing
graduate students would absorb a 163 percent jump.
Consider this: If you’re a Texas resident taking 12 semester
hours this semester, you paid about $1,104 in total tuition, which
does not include fees. This is $46 per hour in statutory tuition
— set by the Legislature — and $46 per hour in designated
tuition.
Deregulation allows universities to set their own designated tuition
rate. Under administrators’ proposal, designated tuition would
be increased to $61 per semester hour for spring ’04 and $81
per semester hour for fall ’04. Total cost for a 12-hour class
schedule: $1,524. That’s just the first year, and that’s
not including hundreds of dollars in fees.
Administrators say the hikes are needed to pay for the university’s
pressing needs: new faculty, faculty start-ups , debt service and
increased faculty/staff salaries and benefits. In all, the university
would see $21 million, which administrators say is desperately needed
to pay for rapid enrollment increases and to compensate for decreased
state appropriations.
Whether administrators’ proposed increases are justified remain
to be seen. The Shorthorn is not yet convinced — and doesn’t
think students should be either until more hard questions are answered.
Two weeks from now — maybe sooner — time will run out
on any chance to influence administrators’ proposals. The
final decision eventually rests with the UT System Board of Regents,
but if students don’t speak up now, they can’t reasonably
complain when writing much bigger checks next year for tuition.
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Editorial
round-up
The issue: Proposed tuition hikes will
hit students in the wallet next year and beyond.
We suggest: Students should take advantage
of the opportunity to affect administrators’ plans.
If students don’t, they can’t complain.
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