Posted on 08/24/2003 6:15:24 PM PDT by Theodore R.
Concerns on tuition grip Tech By SEBASTIAN KITCHEN AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
The trend of public universities becoming less state-supported and more family- and student-supported continues this semester as record numbers of students pay record tuitions across the state, and the trend may be just beginning.
The Legislature recently gave university boards of regents the authority to set tuition rates on their campuses. One major Texas university already has used its new-found power, and others are looking at the cost of doing business before possibly bumping up tuitions in January.
The rising cost of education has Texas Tech students and administrators worried.
Tech Student Body President Jeremy Brown said he started at Tech in 1999 and his most recent bill was $1,000 more than when he started.
Tuition and fees for fall semester have increased 21 percent over what students paid last fall and spring. The increase averages more than $400 per student.
Students pay $44 per semester hour — up from $42, and take an average of 15 hours per semester, for an average $660 in tuition. Fees for services ranging from transportation to technology add hundreds more to a student's bill.
The tuition and fee increases were to cover a growth in the student population, provide services for the students, purchase equipment and other necessary items and help hire faculty, Tech Chancellor David Smith said.
Smith said he was concerned with increased costs "squeezing the middle class out of education."
Smith and other Tech officials were opposed to the Legislature deregulating tuition.
He said Tech is passing on more costs to students because the state is not funding the university's growth.
"My concern is one I've had all along," he said. "This model (tuition deregulation) privatizes public universities and a fear I have with this, with the switching demography of the state, is a lot of families in the lower middle class could get squeezed, and it will limit access.
"That is not why Texas Tech is here," Smith said. "We will take a very prudent look at what we do in the spring."
Tech and the University of Texas have not exercised the recently granted power to set tuition rates, but both are evaluating steps toward possible increases in 2004.
Texas A&M became the first university where regents exercised the power of setting tuition.
"The fears that the boards of regents around the state would misuse their power to set tuition on their own without legislative oversight turned out not to be the case," said Bob Wright, communications director for the Texas A&M University System.
"Tuition increases were moderate increases," he said.
With increased costs of higher education, Tech has worked to bolster funding for scholarships, Smith said. He said there must be more scholarships, stipends and loans.
Smith and Brown applauded legislators for requiring that 20 percent of money obtained from tuition be reinvested into scholarships.
There also is work being done to lower costs in other areas of the university, Smith said.
The university recently eliminated three vice president positions and combined them into the provost's office and renegotiated its long-distance phone contract to save almost $200,000 a year.
Even with the fee increases, Smith said he believes Tech is a "huge bargain."
Brown said many students had concerns about the increase in fees.
"My concern is the state took the responsibility out of state and put it on students," he said. "We go to a public institution and should be funded by the state."
Brown said he hates that costs were passed to students but that the university had little choice.
Smith and Brown said the university has 2,000 more students, but the state did not fund faculty to meet the growth. Tech expects at least 29,000 students on campus this fall.
"If we do not hire more professors then we do not get the best education we can get and the value of my degree goes down. That is what the students don't want," Brown said. "We don't want it, but we have to pay for it."
Officials at Tech and UT said they will work with various members of the campus community, including students, while looking at setting tuition.
Brown said Tech's administration and Board of Regents are sympathetic to the rising costs.
"They don't want to burden students more than they have to," he said.
However, Brown said he worries about students having to take out larger loans to finance their educations.
Brown and Smith said a large portion of Tech students, larger than A&M and UT, is in the middle class, which will be affected most by increasing costs.
With the current competition and requirements in the job world, Brown said, a a college degree is essential.
"That is why I think it is important that the state continues to fund education," he said.
A&M's Wright said system officials realize any increase is too much for some people.
"Texas A&M was not really in favor of tuition deregulation, but it was a last resort as the Legislature could not fund universities adequately. We still believe we are state agencies and the burden of funding should remain on the state and not on the parents and students.
"We had to increase tuition because of a lack of appropriations, but we did it in the most moderate way we can. Any dollar is too much for somebody."
The Texas A&M University System had tuition increases at five of its nine campuses. The A&M campus at College Station increased tuition from $46 a credit hour to $55.
The other increase at the A&M system were: from $40 to $46 for Tarleton State; $46 to $55 for the Galveston campus; $26 to $34 for Texas A&M-Texarkana; and $30.50 to $40.50 for West Texas A&M.
Kevin Hegarty, UT vice president and chief financial officer, said university officials decided not to raise tuition since they set it before the Legislature's deregulation measure.
UT, which is expecting 52,000 students on campus this fall, will charge a base tuition of $46 per credit hour compared to $44 in the spring, Hegarty said.
He and Michael Warden, executive director of public affairs for the UT system, said the system formed a tuition policy committee, on which Hegarty serves.
The committee will be charged with recommending the spring tuition policy, Hegarty said. The committee, which will hold its first meeting Sept. 2, also will be charged with determining long-term policies.
"The outlook on the horizon is we don't know what change, if any, will be made in the spring," Hegarty said. "We have the same kinds of financial budget constraints as other universities. I would certainly expect some type of (tuition) increase in the spring."
UT Regents will meet Nov. 18 to determine the spring tuition.
UT Chancellor Mark Yudof an nounced June 2 that there will be no tuition increases until at least January 2004, Warden said.
Yudof requested consultation plans from each of the system's nine universities to help with decisions regarding setting tuition and those will be evaluated by a systemwide committee.
"We are going to consider all of the proposals for January 2004, but we are not doing anything for the fall that we had not already been done by law," Warden said. "We are not using the new authority given to us any sooner than January 2004."
Tech is in a different position than UT and A&M, which are older universities with larger student bodies. Those universities are attempting to decrease or stall increases in student population.
There was a deliberate attempt to decrease enrollment at UT because the university's infrastructure is over capacity, Hegarty said.
He said many of the older buildings at UT and A&M are in need of replacement or repair because they are 50 to 60 years old.
skitchen@lubbockonline.com 766-8753
Granted, most families cannot afford to buy a new car every year, but this story fails to mention the vast amount of scholarships and financial aid available.
Even the flagship schools in Texas are a pretty good bargain with these tutition increases.
First, paying on the order of $50 a credit hour does not amount to paying a fortune to attend college. If a student takes a full load of 15 credit hours each semester, his tuition payments will be 2 x 15 x $50 or $1,500 a year. Working 20 hours per week at the minimum wage (which falls into the negative tax bracket!) results in the student making 20 x $5.35 = $106.70 a week. That's over $5,200 a year. Any student who cannot pay his tuition, purchase his books and some clothes, and pay for transportation didn't learn enough in high school.
Students grousing about transportation costs is ridiculous. People who work for a living have to get to work at their own expense. Why do students think they are exempt from providing their own transportation to and from school.
Those students who are only qualified to be fry cooks upon graduation did not learn much in college. Most of those fry cooks graduates had foolish majors.
What really bothers me about articles like this one are the students and their parents who:
1. Think the taxpayers owe them subsidized tuition.
2. Think a college degree in worthless subjects such as studies is a magic talisman to riches.
I have two kids at OU and they both received Heritage Scholarships to offset part of the increased tuition. Still a great bargain for the education they are receiving.
Reminded me of being in CA when they actually started charging a small tuition for the Junior Colleges like $50 and they got up in arms they couldn't afford it. If you want an college education, you will find a way!
My two cents!
Add extras like parking permits, meal plans, and the cost of housing, and you're talking $15-20,000 per year at a minimum. Books alone can cost another $500 per semester, more if they're new.
Granted the college kid would have been eating at home, which costs something, but you're not going to be able to pay your own way to attend a Texas University on your own (not living with your parents) on anything approaching a $5,200 income.
It's not as if I was surprised that my son would attend college, and we've been saving for this for years.
The cost of college is still cheap compared to what is earned by most grads. Last year the average intern/ new hire got over 45,000. I know recent grads that are already eraning 100K. Yes they are engineers or math wizards, but that looks like good money too me. So shut up pay the bill.
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