Letter: Tuition proposal not plausible

Editor:

I read with interest the Utah Statesman’s article on President Hall’s 12 percent a year tuition hike over the next three years. President Hall feels that hiking tuition will not decrease numbers or prevent students from coming. How wrong.

I read somewhere that more than 200,000 college students did not continue college this year because of the rising cost of tuition.

I also find it ironic that as tuition increases, a student’s chance for aid – including loans – decreases. The federal government has not increased the Pell grant or Stafford loan in years. I have friends who rely on these two to go to USU, as they do not have the credit rating to get a loan. The Pell grant, in entirety, is $4,050 a year. The Stafford loan is $3,000 a year. It will cover room and board and some books. The remaining deficit for most people is covered by a job.

Right now it is nice: You can work and make ends meet. With this proposal, the student would likely have to take out a private loan to top it all off. The federal loans and grants no longer cover it all. For those of us who do not qualify for Pell Grants, this means a job, bigger and bigger loans, and longer scholarship hunts. President Hall’s proposal is as follows: For the 2005-06 school year, expect tuition to go from $1,686.82 for basic tuition and fees to $1,888.75 a semester. Ouch. Then the next year, 2,006-07, from $1,888.75 to $2,115.40 a semester. Then, the final year, from $2,115.40 to $2,369.24 a semester. Those figures do not count lab fees, remedial course fees (which are also supposed to go up), music room fees and English fees.

At the same time the two people who are supposed to help me with my college expenses (my parents) are watching their taxes increase this year alone by as much as $300 – that is if the state of Utah and Davis County have their way. The ironic thing is that they say it the same way as President Hall did: It’s necessary because of lack of funding.

So cough it up. My question is, where is the money we’re giving you now going? To fancy cars? Candy? Fancy clothes? Where is it going?

Candace Leutzinger