LETTER: Back practices led to tuition proposal
Editor,
The 36 percent tuition increase purposed by President Hall is to compensate for the decrease in student enrollment and subsequent funding. Our falling enrollment because of poor policy making for incoming students (especially transfer students) has placed our beloved Utah State University in debt. Increasing tuition more than the state-mandated 7 percent will only place USU deeper in debt and decrease enrollment further. No student recruiting effort implemented by the university will ever compensate for a 36 percent tuition increase.
Utah State University enrollment has lost thousands of students since the change of Rick’s College to BYU-Idaho and the development of multiple four-year programs in colleges that once were only two year institutions.
Why? Well, one reason could possibly be requiring students who have completed associates degrees in other institutions to back track and take depth education course which they have already taken but may have been numbered 3000 level or lower. Maybe the decrease in enrollment is because of the ridiculous requirements like the one of completing an application for an application for graduation. Yes, an application for an application for graduation – what a runaround. Policy and paperwork like this are only a few examples of problems that are decreasing our edge as a quality institution, which in turn decreases our enrollment and increases per student tuition.
President Hall’s 37 percent tuition increase proposal is a quick fix that will leave Utah State University crippled in a few years. Students and the faculty will feel the effects of this student tuition increase well after President Hall has moved on to a bigger and higher paying job such as the one he applied for in the spring at the University of Tennessee. It is our decision and our university and such an obscene tuition increase will hurt both faculty and students. Please contact both your student and faculty representatives and tell them that you do not support a 37 percent tuition increase.
Mark Openshaw