I don’t know about most of you readers out there, but my tuition went up just within the last year. I suspect that many of you are familiar with that situation as well, since the university increased tuition and fee costs by 10.8 percent according to the Roanoke Times.
What you may not know is that there is a chance some of that extra money we have to pay as a part of our cost in attending Virginia Tech will not go toward our education, but to the state. That’s right, some of our hard-earned money could potentially be used to balance the state budget.
The Tech Board of Visitors Executive Committee will already be deciding this week to increase tuition and fees by 5 percent, for those of us who are in-state. Out-of-state students and graduate students can expect an increase of 5.1 percent. If you are an out-of-state graduate student, you would be looking at the toughest increase, 6.3 percent.
So? Since Tech’s tuition and fee costs are fifth most expensive in the state, what’s the big deal about a 5 percent increase? Refer back to earlier when I said that some of that money will go to the state.
Think about it for a second. If it were not for recent stimulus funding, Tech would have raised our tuition even more than the increases I have already listed. The state lowers its financial support to our university, while it also plans to take away a portion of those heightened fees from our education. This is all part of former Gov. Tim Kaine’s final budget bill, which frankly has not gotten as much attention as it should have.
Sure, we hear about how bad the economy is doing, but where is the line between asking students to pay our dues to a wonderful public university and stealing from us? Instead of our increased fees going toward things we need, such as renovation, improving our health and counseling centers, and supporting our education to the fullest, this suggestion to take our fees to help the state budget is contemptible. An estimated $18.8 million could be taken from Virginia universities in just the first year of this proposal. This proposal won’t just affect us, but public universities across the state. Tech, I ask you: Is this fair?