STAFF EDIT: Tackling tuition

Spring break brought a welcome relief from the daily trials of an average college student. Here was one week where deadlines, frantic emails and copious reading could cease for at least a few long, lazy days. Unfortunately, the rediscovered inner peace was short-lived. Thousands of Boston University students opened their email accounts four days ago and read, “For the academic year 2012/2013, the Board of Trustees has set the standard tuition rate at $42,400 and the basic room and board rate at $13,190. This is a combined increase of $2,032, or 3.79 percent, which is among the lowest in the last 40 years.”
While an increase of just more than $2,000 may seem “conservative” in an overall picture of the university’s budget, these consistent increases could dissuade future students from coming to BU, and further penalize those already enrolled. As the email progressed, its recipients were informed of the various areas that would benefit from the increase in funds, including a promise to increase financial aid by 5 percent. According to an article published on The Daily Free Press website on Friday, this increase is consistent with tuition increases in the past three years, averaging about 3.8 percent. Obviously, this increase is due to a rise in costs for running and maintaining facilities. Nevertheless, notable inclusions are the highly anticipated building projects coming up at BU, including the New Balance Athletic Field and the Center for Student Services.
While the increases aren’t unjustified, there seems to be no clear end in sight to tuition hikes. These new facilities will improve the student experience and enhance BU’s campus. Yet one has to question whether these new projects, which many current students won’t be able to fully utilize in their time at BU, should overshadow the importance to ensuring the university is financially viable to as many people as possible.
An alternative that could be considered would be fixed tuition rates for each class. With this system, students will have a concrete idea of what their tuition rates will be for the duration of their undergraduate career. Of course, this alternative would need to be explored in more depth before implementation, but it could be a viable solution. An editorial in The Daily Free Press from 1985 reads, “Measles are hot right now. So is the tuition hike. The measles will go away.” Sadly, some of these words are still relevant almost three decades later.