An open letter to the people to whom I’m paying a lot of money

We have a fun relationship, don’t we? I pay money,  more money, then more money in return for a college education. Sometimes I’m not too sure if what I’m paying accurately represents what I’m receiving, but that must be a hard lesson of life; or so you want me to believe.

In that Intro Economics class this institution forced me to take, I learned something about opportunity cost. Really it’s the only thing I learned, everything else about economics I learned thanks to my employment. Anyway, the professor essentially told us that we were losing money based on the opportunity cost of giving up time to work during the day to attend class.

Maybe it will benefit us in the future, maybe it won’t, I don’t know if I believe the stats your website tells me. Either way, I’ll keep paying the money because I value my education.

On the other hand, I think you make the process a bit too complicated sometimes.

I don’t understand why I’ll get charged extra online to use certain forms of payment, yet I can’t use other forms of payment in person at the Registrar’s office. I can pay for certain things at places A, P and W but not at C, G, and K. But what I find truly astounding is your impeccable timing.

Tuition and fees due during finals week? Really? I and a thousand other students have been camped in the library, Starbucks, McDonalds and anywhere else with Wi-Fi and caffeine for two weeks getting ink stains on our nostrils trying to ensure our grades are good enough to return next semester.

I don’t think that’s the optimal time to be stressing out over paying next semester’s thousands of dollars in tuition, do you? These are rhetorical questions because apparently you do. Not only do you think that it is okay, but you like to start the purge before we even know our fate.

Understandably you don’t really want to work too hard over the break and during the holidays, but maybe the words “institution of higher education” might be a good thing to remind yourself of before your happy days of the purge. Remember that we should be putting education first, or in other words, let the students study, and make sure the professors have grades in the system before the money gets in your way.

Not feasible to wait until after grades are put in or when holiday gifts might give us the extra cash to pay our differential tuition? The early bird gets the worm should sum it up: make the deadline earlier, before finals. In that case, make sure there’s an easy refund policy just in case those science depth classes for an art major or vice versa do more damage than intended.

Focus on education, you work for a public university, a great one at that. Every student may not be a precious snowflake, but finals week is already bad enough, it’s that much easier for a student to get pushed over the edge.

—    richard.poll@aggiemail.usu.edu

@richard_poll