Tuition woes

It seems as though all college students hear about lately is "tuition this" and "fees that," but this time, the voices are getting louder.

The University of Texas System's Board of Regents recently approved a tuition and fee increase over the next two years for full-time resident undergraduate students at nine institutions, and UTEP happens to be one of them.

This isn't a small increase like the athletic fee currently being voted on. This increase will raise the tuition by 3.95 percent, which is, on average, $280 per academic year.

The increase may not seem like much to students, like me, who receive scholarships and government-funded grants that pay for tuition. Quite a few students pay for classes out of pocket, and this raise in tuition equates to about half the cost of an extra class, at least for the first academic year.

College is really starting to seem more and more like a privilege for some students rather than a right. The pursuit for higher education should be readily available to anyone who is willing to take on the challenge, but the state of Texas, unfortunately, does not seem willing or able to provide adequate funding for higher education.

There seems to be no end in sight for these increases. Whatever happened to the tuition freezes governor Rick Perry proposed last year? If there is an increase in tuition costs, there ought to be an increase in student opportunities to receive government-funded grants, especially for those who were already struggling before the tuition increases.

 

These system-wide increases, as pitched by UT System regents such as James Huffines, will "allow us to strike a delicate balance between our efforts to keep student costs affordable and to provide our institutions with essential resources…"

Call it ignorance, but I'm not sure what needs to be added to maintain the balance for "essential resources." The computer labs have the software I need to do my assignments and the classrooms have the equipment my chemistry major friends need to do theirs. I'm not quite sure what "essential resources" are missing from my education.

What is even sadder is when students waste their opportunities. In my freshman year, I had several high school friends who dropped out of college their second semester out of laziness. Those students happened to receive enough grants to go to school. One of them took the extra money for himself and never even went to class.

That is just wasted money that could have been used for someone struggling with a job or two just to pay for a few classes, which as many of you know happens often at this university.

In the end, tuition will increase and most of us will have to find some way to manage that. Those of you who may cringe at the sight of this increase, I advise that you might have to think twice about how many Tecates you drink this Thursday.

Jesus C. Martinez may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.