Collegiate Times

As students at Virginia Tech, our tuition is expected to rise around 9 percent a year for the next four years. In these dire economic times, making college accessible to all is even more critical for the future of the commonwealth.

The state legislature does not understand how important Tech is to the health and growth of the commonwealth. College is not accessible and affordable to all, and more and more students are struggling to meet ends meet. More students are being forced to have a job (or two) and still try to have time to study. Virginia ranks No. 40 in terms of how supportive the state is to higher education. Tech is disproportionally funded.

According to the Government Relations office, Tech receives less than 25 percent of our $1.05 billion operating budget from the state. In 1999, that number was more than 50 percent. The average spending by the state per student nationally is $7,059. In Virginia that number is $5,805.

Salaries are being frozen, people are being laid off, and classroom size is being forced to expand. The best and brightest teachers are able to find jobs elsewhere, because we cannot simply afford to pay them what they deserve. However, that is not even the bad news. It’s not even close.

Before Gov. Kaine left office he proposed a tax on public university auxiliary funds as a means of putting money back into the general fund deficit. These are the student fees that every student pays in order to better our school academically and structurally. The school sets our student fees at a certain price, and that money goes toward different aspects of our collegiate experience.

If this bill goes through, it will give the state unprecedented power over public institutions. We currently have reserve funds that are supposed to help support the health and growth of Tech. Some members of the General Assembly believe they are entitled to our money. The proposed budget seizes $18.8 million or roughly 5 percent of each school’s auxiliary funds.

Unlike general fund dollars, which originate from state appropriations, these auxiliary funds are made up of money raised by the schools from student fees. Students and parents, who are continuing to struggle to afford a college education, paid these fees to their institution to ensure that each school could have revenue for projects that were not eligible to receive general fund dollars. These funds were also used to secure good accounting practices and to cover unexpected financial problems (such as a leaking roof in the dining hall).

Here is the good news: SGA is sponsoring the most students in the history of student government to lobby in Richmond to protest this “tax” and show those in Richmond that higher education plays an integral role in the commonwealth.

We need to let Gov. McDonnell know that we cannot stand for this and amendments to Gov. Kaine’s proposed budget must be made. On Feb. 3, more than 50 students will make history by heading to Richmond to carry this very strong message. Want to know how you can get involved? Contact Brittany Anderson, SGA director of government affairs, at baa526@vt.edu or myself at brandoncarroll@vt.edu.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 2 issue of the Collegiate Times.