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NEWS
| October 21, 2003
Tuition and Fees
Student petitions against increase
Jeni Hall’s goal is to have
5,000 signatures by the Tuition Review Committee’s meeting
Thursday.
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| The Shorthorn: Mario Hernandez |
| Undeclared freshman Elizabeth Simmons
signs a petition against tuition increases Monday afternoon
in front of the University Center. Petition author Jeni
Hall, a political science and broadcast communication
sophomore, says she has collected at least 1,500 signatures. |
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By Chris
Baggott
The Shorthorn staff
More than 1,500 students have signed a petition to protest administrators’
proposed tuition increases.
Jeni Hall, a political science and broadcast communication sophomore,
said she began circulating the petition after she found out how
high the university wants to raise tuition. She decided to distribute
the petition while at a student forum on the subject Wednesday.
“Actually, before the forum was over I was ready to leave
and write the petition and come back to have people sign it while
they were still there because I was so angry,” she said.
Hall said she stayed up late into the night writing the petition.
Administrators declined to give the number of signatures needed
to impact their decision on the proposal.
“They have not said at any point that they will listen, but
right now we have over 1,000 names,” she said. “I want
5,000 names before the next meeting, and that’s about 25 percent
of our current student population. I feel like if 25 percent of
the school says ‘No, we’re not going to pay for this,’
then at some point they have to listen.”
The next step she plans is a little different — a protest.
“Actually, we want to have a sit-in at the next review committee
meeting,” Hall said.
The administration’s tuition proposal calls for a $15-per-credit-hour
increase in the spring and an additional $20-per-credit-hour increase
next fall. The current cost of designated tuition is $46 per-credit-hour.
Engineering and nursing students would pay additional increases
for upper-level courses in the spring. These increases would bring
in about $21 million in new funds for the university.
The Tuition Review Committee is discussing the proposal and will
tentatively meet Thursday. When it settles on a recommendation,
the committee will submit a proposal to interim President Charles
Sorber.
“With deregulation, there’s no ands, ifs or buts about
it. You have tuition going up some, but it doesn’t have to
go up $21 million,” Hall said.
She said some of the administration’s proposals are “frivolous.”
The university should only raise $11 million, she said, which is
about the amount the university lost this year in budget cuts.
Rusty Ward, interim vice president for business affairs and controller,
said officials studied the increases before they were proposed.
He said the funds generated from the current proposal would eventually
recoup the funds the university lost during the last legislative
session. However, this does not take into account higher costs for
instructors and facilities, which Ward said will take up a good
part of the new funds.
“We don’t come close to getting back what all we lost,”
Ward said. “If we didn’t think [the proposal] was the
best plan, we wouldn’t have proposed it.”
Ward said the amount of money Hall wants to generate would require
significant cuts in programs and faculties.
Hall said one problem she has with the current proposal is that
it doesn’t give students any time to adjust to the change.
She said the university should stretch the increases over the course
of several semesters.
Reagan Holmes, Liberal Arts senator, said he agrees the increase
would come too quickly.
“Students plan for the fall and spring, then this comes up
right in the middle and it’s not what they expect,”
the advertising junior said.
Holmes said he understands why the funds need to be raised, he wasn’t
going to sign Hall’s petition.
“I’m going to stay neutral,” he said. “There’s
so much we need to do with so many more students.”
Administrators said the proposed increases might draw a higher class
of students to the university. Hall does not agree. She said the
way to make UTA a better school is to increase admission standards,
not raise tuition.
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sign
time
Hall plans to collect more signatures for her petition
against tuition increases throughout the week. She left
copies of the petition in the University Catholic Center,
the computer lab in the lower-level of University Hall
and at the Lutheran Center.
Here’s a look at where she’ll be:
• 1 to 5 p.m. today on the Engineering mall
• 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday near Pickard Hall
tuition Data Bank
For more information about the tuition increase,
visit the Data
Bank.
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| Jeni
Hall, a political science and broadcast communication
sophomore, is planning a sit-in at the Thursday meeting.
More on tuition increases.
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