Take a hike: University misled out-of-state students by indicating they wouldn’t face more tuition raises

Out-of-state students who thought they were safe from onerous tuition hikes this year shouldn’t hold their breath.

It was announced at Friday’s Faculty Council meeting that the option for higher tuition hikes for these students is now on the table.

Raising the possibility for further tuition increases does not guarantee that out-of-state students will get a larger hike.

However, it flies in the face of previous gestures by officials implying that out-of-state students were safe.

Chancellor Holden Thorp even went so far as to call it “a good year for out-of-state folks.”

It appears he might have spoken too soon.

The state budget, signed a month ago, included a $200 tuition increase for both out-of-state and in-state students. No other increase was mentioned, and University officials suggested that it would remain that way.

Furthermore, this increase does not even provide revenue for the University. It is a flat tax imposed by and for the state.

But in spite of being taxed, out-of-state students mostly rejoiced. A $200 tax to the state was far better than last year’s $1,150 tuition hike.

This proves to be another year where decisions regarding tuition are marked more by caprice than by conviction.

All this in spite of greater tuition predictability being a goal of recent student body presidents.

Granted, it is hard for anyone to have foreseen the economic shock that has led to the current budget dilemma. But even these trying economic times do not make our leaders any less accountable.

Apparently, tuition hikes were revisited only after administrators realized that only in-state tuition increases were maxed out for the coming year.

One justification given for the new hikes is the rising number of need-based aid applications. This also raises questions as to what the University was planning to do to meet this need in the absence of greater tuition increases.

But nothing is set in stone yet.

The current tuition plan should remain — an increase of $200 for all.

Everyone is hurting right now, and out-of-state students at least deserve transparency and frankness from officials who have the power to saddle even more of the budgetary burden on them and their families.