Whenever the concept of money is mentioned to a student, there is usually one thought that radiates on his penny-pinching mind: Do you have any and can I have it? As funny as this sounds, when the idea of a student fee increase is brought up, these thoughts are likely to come to mind.
This week’s Ted on the Street will do some number-crunching to find out whether a student fee increase is merited and whether students agree.
The Skinny
The CSU board of trustees voted on Wednesday to increase student fees for the 2007-2008 academic year. The increase will affect all students. Undergraduates will pay $252 extra, graduates will pay $312 and credential students $294.
However, comparatively, the average cost of a CSU school year is still cheaper than other state-run schools across the country, with the average in CSU being $3,450 a year and the rest with an average of $6,665 per year, according to Paul Browning, spokesman for the chancellor of the CSU board of trustees.
“Due to the budget deficit in the state, the governor sent a budget to the legislature that requires student fees to increase for the next school year,” Browning said. “The board votes on this proposal and can change its mind should the budget be shot down by the legislature.”
This school year saw no fee increase due to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanting to prevent raising fees as much as possible, Browning said. The governor plans to increase fees moderately and gradually.
“Who knows what he’s going to do?” Browning said, referring to the governor. “He’s just assuming that it’ll go up.”
Students with financial aid, student loans and scholarships will not be affected. Financial aid students will receive an appropriate amount to compensate for the fee increase, according to Browning.
“We have two sources of funds for the school. One is from the state and the other is from student fees,” he said. “One-third of the school’s budget goes to financial aid.”
The Street
Various students gave their reactions to the fee increase that will take place next year.
“I don’t like [it] because I think I’m already paying too much,” said freshman communications major Kara Flietstra. “There’s no incentive for kids in high school to even go to a Cal State right away. They can just go to a community college and pay less.”
Freshman Michelle Boidston had a different opinion.
“As long as it’s going to us to help our campus, then it’s OK,” Boidston said. “My mom’s a teacher and I think that teachers deserve a higher salary. I don’t want to pay for it, but if it’ll help us out, then I’ll do it.”
In addition to the basic financial concerns of how to pay for the increase, there is also a concern of where the money will be going when paid to the school, as junior computer science major Dylan Smith said.
“All this money is going around in the state and we don’t know where it’s going and whose hand touches it,” Smith said. “How do we know students are getting what they need? The whole thing reeks of profit.”
“I don’t think it’s fair,” said junior economics major Lewis Arevalo regarding student fee increases. “It affects society as a whole because the higher the fee increases, the less people will go to college and the less professionals there will be in society.”
Ted Concludes
Easy come, easy go. Money is hard to come by and even harder to hang on to. Considering that college students by their very nature are frivolous in their spending, having an increase in fees simply adds to the difficulty of being a student at all. Although I use financial aid and grants to get by, some students aren’t that fortunate.
The verdict? Paying more per year: It’s not pretty, but perhaps it’s necessary. Until someone is able to infiltrate the state government or college fee system to find out just what is going on with our money, we will have to suffer the fees and empty our wallets for that college degree, which may or may not have any value in the real world. Utilizing financial aid: Yes. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since my first year in college, it’s that free money versus no money is always better.
