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Waiting in long lines at the Student Services Building to pay for tuition is just the beginning of the worst things about paying for classes.
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Tuition has been rising for the last 20 years at a consistent rate, currently resting at more than $3,000 for 12 credits of undergraduate classes for Utah residents. Students, such as Emily Van Allen, a senior in urban ecology, are starting to speak out against the increase.
“We get a great education here at the U, but the tuition increases have to stop,” Van Allen said. “When I first started at the U it cost me about $2,300 per semester to attend. Now I’m paying close to $5,000 per semester. Something’s wrong with that picture.”
Van Allen said there isn’t an increase in the quality of education and overall campus experience to match the rise in tuition.
Financial and Business Services at the U are trying to alleviate the burden of tuition costs, but the solutions have problems of their own. One option that many U students use is deferral. With this plan, students are required to pay 30 percent of their tuition bill upfront. But there’s also a $30 sign-up fee. And if tuition is not paid in 60 days after the initial deadline, students can be charged an additional $60.
In 2013 the U’s Board of Trustees approved a five percent tuition increase, and last year the board approved an additional 5.8 percent tuition increase for the 2014-2015 school year. This was approximately a $374 increase per year per student. Some cite the university’s acceptance into the Pac-12 as a cause of the sudden increase, but the U still has the lowest tuition in the conference.
Some of the students hit hardest by the tuition hikes are out-of-state students — who already pay more to attend school — whose tuition averages more than $18,000 per year at the U with 12 credits a semester.
Tuition hikes may have affected student enrollment and graduation rates as well. In Fall 2012, before the initial tuition hike, the U’s enrollment was 32,388. In Fall 2013, this number dropped by a few hundred individuals to 32,077. By Fall 2014, the population at the U dropped to 31,515.
Hidden among the growing costs to attend the university are student fees allocated to developing campus in ways that are not always recognized. One fee is intended to go toward renovating student-used facilities.
Raven James, a senior in the College of Humanities, isn’t buying it. She said the tuition increase doesn’t benefit who it should.
“In today’s world you need a degree to get a decent paying job, but colleges and universities are pricing students out of being able to afford that,” she said. “We are students. We are poor. I understand universities need to make money, but they are going after the wrong demographic to achieve that end.”
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