In a meeting with The Student Government Association (SGA) on Nov. 15, UT Tyler’s Tuition Committee proposed a 12 percent increase in students’ net price of tuition and fees, as well as a $20 per credit hour increase for business, engineering and nursing students, making their net price increase up to approximately 19 percent.
Without significant opposition from the student body, SGA will likely support the proposal to increase tuition and this means students will be paying a lot more for tuition come Fall 2018.
I started researching the University’s financial position ever since University President Michael Tidwell told student government on Oct. 10 that the University would consider an increase in tuition and fees.
I wanted to get to the bottom of the school’s finances so that I could rebut any reckless claims administrators might make in pursuit of an increase and I wanted to make sure that the University pursued this for the right reasons.
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I dug deeply into University budgets and financial reports and I spent hours trying to get the facts on where and how the University was spending its money.
Only now do I realize I was being a fool. In order to stop a tuition increase–should I need to–I would have to challenge the University’s justification for raising tuition in the first place. Its justification is its rising enrollment numbers.
This record-high enrollment, coupled with its claim to lack of funds from the state, both provide the ground for the University to say that it needs to raise tuition.
Many people equate high enrollment with success for the University. Therefore, in their minds, a tuition increase is necessary in order to keep up with high enrollment and therefore keep up the success.
To oppose a tuition increase would be to oppose the University’s success. I could do all the research in the world, but until I challenged this notion, I would never be able to stop a tuition increase. After all, as supporters say, how can you say no to success?
I can see only two ways that I could disarm support for a tuition increase: one, if I could prove that the University has been financially irresponsible with students’ money and is therefore undeserving of more; and two, if I could prove that the financial impact on students would be too severe to justify the proposed increase.
So, could I successfully oppose a tuition increase with these claims? Let’s see.
Can I prove that the University is irresponsible with students’ money? Not really. I can show that the University has operated in a deficit for the past four years. But does this demonstrate fiscal irresponsibility?
No, not that I can tell. I can prove that it’s not good or that I don’t like it or that it has risks, but a deficit does not mean irresponsibility. At best it means a different strategy. Therefore, I cannot prove that the University is irresponsible. This objection falls.
Now, can I prove that the increase will have a severe financial impact on students? No, I don’t think so. How do you price a student out of education when there is an endless amount of money supply for them to pay for tuition in the form of student loans?
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Therefore, I do not see how there is an argument on the adverse impact on students when they have student loans to make any price achievable. So, both arguments that I could make to oppose an increase fail.
Therefore, it appears to be impossible to mount a successful defense against a tuition increase at UT Tyler.
This is why it would take outspoken students who could persuade student government to officially say that students oppose a tuition increase. Regardless of why, if the students say they don’t want it, the students don’t want it. This is the best hope to stop the increase.
Another hope to stop the increase is if the Board of Regents rejects the University’s proposal, but if SGA ends up endorsing it, it will be very hard to persuade the Regents to ignore student government, which speaks for over 10,000 students.
This increase seems to be unstoppable without active opposition from students for one can’t say that the University has been irresponsible and one can’t say an increase will severely be too severe for students to price students out of education.
SGA is the last best chance for students who don’t want to pay more in tuition. The senate will vote on the proposal this Wednesday. So speak up now, students. This is probably your last chance.
**The Student Government Association meets in RBS 2024 on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. Students can attend or speak to the assembly in Speaker’s Podium. To sign up, email SGA@uttyler.edu or speak to the president 15 minutes before the meeting.
Students can also speak to the assembly by videoconference with arrangements with SGA. Students can also email comments to SGA@uttyler.edu or visit SGA webpage.
Twitter: @jhescock
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