With the economy going the way it is, I have trained myself to expect bad news when I open The New York Times.
However, I had just a glimmer of hope left that economic repercussions would leave college tuition prices alone. Call me Pollyanna.
New figures released by the College Board on Wednesday confirmed tuition prices have gone up for four-year universities nationwide by 6.4 percent for two 15-credit semesters. The average price for a year of college in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree rose from $6,191 to $6,585.
Utah fares better than the average, with an increase of 5.9 percent in tuition and mandatory fees from last year. The increase tipped us from $4,987 to $5,282. This was before the dollar made a disappearing act and the stock market began resembling a terrifying slide.
Paul Brinkman, assoiciate vice president for budget and planning, said he has seen one year in his career at the U when tuition didn’t increase. In 1996, the Legislature voted to keep tuition the same, and fees went up by a breezy $6.
Tuition will increase, but Brinkman said it’s too soon to tell how much. The Legislature and State Board of Regents largely determine tuition increases.
“We’re not trying to keep people from going to college, but we have to keep the place from falling apart, too,” Brinkman said. “It’s a tug-of-war.”
The U knows students better than the rest of the people involved in deciding tuition, and yet it has the least amount of say. The “keeping-people-from-going-to-college” team seems to be winning.
The increase leaves not only freshmen shaking their fists, but also those graduating this semester in a catch-22 come December. Try to find a job in a market that is laying off employees every which way or postpone the cruel corporate world by going to graduate school, which is getting more and more financially unobtainable.
With no guarantee of landing a good job, even with a degree, it’s easy to see why people might opt out of an education.
Students trying to pay for college are in hot water with student loans being granted in minuscule numbers. The bigwig of the student loan world, Sallie Mae, has hit its own hard times of late, closing offices all over the country and turning a harshly discriminatory eye on borrowers.
The circumstances are combining against students, turning into Murphy’s Law. The Legislature needs to take notice of struggling students who can’t make ends meet while paying for an education.
Anne Roper
Willus Branham