Monday, May 14, 2012

The gift that keeps on taking away: VCU Board of Visitors hikes tuition & fees again


On Friday, Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Board of Visitors approved a $920 million operating budget that will tack on a 3.87% tuition and fee hike. The hike equals out to $368 and yearly total of $9.885 for the “typical” undergraduate.[1]

For VCU schools not fortunate enough to live at home during their college career, the mean yearly expense for an in-state undergraduate with a meal plan living in student housing will increase by 2.59%.

Non-resident undergraduates also have the fortune of incurring a 4.2% tuition and fee increase while master’s students will witness a 3.95% increase.

What does it say about a school’s board of visitors, and ultimately the school itself, if it continuously pushes a degree in higher education further out of reach for many Virginians? What does it say about a board of visitors which reasons that it’s OKAY for their students to incur more debt as a matter of course?

In its rush to be Virginia’s hottest university, VCU seems more than ready to sweep aside some of the principles which have been the school’s bedrock for many decades: serving Virginian’s of all stripes and colors.

With seemingly indefinite hikes in tuition and fees would it be surprising to find that more individuals from economically disadvantaged communities are choosing to forego a college education, individuals predominantly located in the city of Richmond?[2]

Opponents may respond that the tuition and fee hikes are minimal and are not a financial overburden for VCU students. This is however an easy argument to make when you live in relative affluence. A few extra hundred dollars here, a few extra hundred dollars there, no big deal!

It is of course big. If nothing else, some kind of pledge by the board of visitors to put a ceiling on tuition and fee hikes would signal to VCU’s students and Virginians in general that VCU is truly concerned about the welfare of its student body. What VCU’s board of visitors has instead indicated is that VCU is a business, the students are the customers, and either pay or get out.

Unfortunately, many students may choose the latter.[3]

No comments:

Post a Comment