Experts weigh in on rising tuition costs at student panel assessing higher ed.

“Is BU worth it?”

In response to recent tuition increases at Boston University, student-run activist group !mpact (pronounced “impact”) hosted a panel Wednesday to answer this question.

About 30 people attended the panel to listen to experts and engage in a discussion around the rising cost of tuition.

!mpact is a student-run activist group that advocates for a collective student effort to set up a campaign with enough support to ultimately freeze tuition hikes at BU, said Nancy Vegas, a College of Arts and Sciences senior and group member.

“We are trying to create a group of people that care and will commit to doing something about the rising tuition,” Vegas said. “They [tuition hikes] are not an individual issue, but an issue of the entire university.”

In an email to students March 18, BU President Robert Brown announced tuition will rise to $43,970, for the 2013-3014 year, marking a 3.7 percent increase from the 2012-2013 cost.

Vegas said the entire student body must unite and create a broad base of support to take action and show the administration that students support !mpact’s cause.

Wayne Langley, an expert in the financial structure of higher education, spoke during the panel about the high costs of tuition at U.S. institutions of higher education.

“Higher education has morphed into a for-profit industry, just like the auto industry, where the privileged and rich are able to benefit more than lower income groups,” he said.

Students who attended the panel asked questions regarding where their money was going in light of the recent rise in university costs.

“Has higher education ever been a tool of social mobility?” asked Luke Rebecchi, a CAS junior.

Langley said he thinks there are definite values in higher education, however it is just not worth the money in the way it is set up now.

“I am personally and professionally a big booster of higher education, as it is an essential part of this country’s future,” Langley said. “I am just concerned about how institutions use and incorporate their revenue.”

Andrew Cho, a CAS freshman, asked where the money gained through tuition hikes goes.

Langley said although administrative costs have risen dramatically, there are so many income streams at major universities that it is very hard to tell where exactly the money is allocated.

He said there is a widespread acceptance among professionals that a problem in regards to higher education exists, but he has a different opinion than most about how these problems should be solved. He also said students have more collective power than people realize, and that students should come together in order to fight for their own future.

“If you don’t fight for your rights, you are then a victim of this industry,” he said.

Langley also said students must fight for the democracy, affordability, transparency and accountability of their tuition.

“You [students] are all essentially stakeholders in these institutions, but you have no voice,” he said. “You don’t have a seat at the table and you don’t get to determine how your investment is being used.”