Tuition increase logical but unfair



Shane Wade
Opinion Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Twitter

Months before it actually happened, a number of our opinion columnists predicted the increase in tuition and discussed both the possibilities and consequences that it would have.

At the time, the potential for an increase seemed to be a distant possibility, but as of May 2011, VCU’s tuition cost has increased by almost 8 percent. While 8 percent may seem slight, it means out-of-state students will pay an additional $1,000 and in-state students will pay an additional $700. These amounts are significant enough that they might discourage current students already struggling to make ends meet as well as potential students that may see the increase as a consistent trend.

Although the board of visitors’ decision to increase VCU’s cost of tuition is not without logic and valid reasoning, I cannot help but disagree with the underlying premise that the university’s students alone should incur the cost of increased tuition as a result of the $41 million decrease in federal and state funding. The burden ought to be shared throughout all levels of the university in order to lessen the pain, meaning that administrators and faculty members might need to take pay cuts, while students simultaneously face an increase cost of attendance or forgo certain student services.

By showing solidarity during these tough economic times, VCU will curb its growing reputation for consistently raising the cost of attendance in some manner, reassuring its students that the university is committed to providing a quality education at a reasonable cost. These steps will greatly increase the school’s popularity, ensuring us a greater number of applicants in the following years and solidifying the relationship between the school and students that might feel that their academic experience here was dulled by their financial worries.

Maintaining the credibility of higher education is now more necessary than ever, as we reach a crossroads on the subject of the value of a college education. Public colleges and universities have a responsibility as educators to ensure they are doing their part to persuade people that college is worth the four years of stress and loans. A school’s choice to make education more inclusive and accessible to middle-class families has a significant influence on the state and region’s economic health because a college education is so often a prerequisite for meaningful jobs. Raising tuition, or simply being viewed as a school with an unstable cost of attendance, only serves to dissuade people from attending, inhibiting diversity in terms of economic class and isolating students from the Richmond community.

VCU students, despite paying a tuition that is below state average, retain the right to protest any changes concerning the university that we find objectionable.

That right is not limited to any basketball games we lose or the annual increases in tuition we face; whatever you find objectionable, whether it be the campus cuisine, availability of classes, substandard on-campus housing or absurd university policies concerning Nerf guns, let your voice be heard through one of the many media outlets available to you.