Tuition Hikes Disguised

If you’re still looking for a Halloween costume, don’t try dressing up as a small tuition and fee increase—ISU’s deceptive new fee hikes have already won that contest.

Rarely has a university been quite so dishonest about a tuition and fee hike as ISU was on Oct. 19 when the Board of Trustees, with rubber stamps seemingly surgically implanted, imposed a 10.5% increase on many students (and a 12.1% hike on students taking 16 hours of credit or more). Of course, you won’t hear see these big numbers in the media, who dutifully reported the 4% number promoted by ISU. (Actually, the Vidette  even reported the wrong number, claiming it was 4.17% in the Oct. 22 issue.)

This 4% figure is supposedly below a per capita personal income index projected to increase by 4.17%. Of course, this index is imaginary: with the looming recession, personal income certainly won’t rise that much, and minimum-wage student workers wouldn’t see an increase anyway. Moreover, the real tuition increase is 4.6% thanks to an average $75 annual “supplement” to pay for Educating Illinois programs.

But the big financial blow comes from the fee increase which the Administration claims is not being increased. For students taking more than 14 hours of classes, the overall hike will hit double digits because the cap on student fees is being lifted.

Student trustee Cori Brown joined the cheerleading for raising the fee cap: “I don’t see any problem with that, and I don’t think students would.” Perhaps students should let Brown (cfbrown@ilstu.edu) know if they disagree.

The reason for the 12-hour cap is simple and rational: students taking 12 hours of classes are full-time students who are just as likely (maybe more so, since they have additional free time) to make use of student services and activities as 15-hour students. Raising the fee cap will discourage students from taking a full load of classes (which may delay academic progress) or impose an unexpected financial burden of paying hundreds of dollars more than anticipated.

The actual average tuition and fee increase, which the trustees and the media alike ignored, will be 7.95%, with the following increases based on hours taken by this fall’s students:

12 hours or less: 7,863 students will pay 4.58% more.

13 hours: 2,412 students will pay 6.77% more.

14 hours: 2,139 students will pay 8.73% more.

15 hours: 4,997 students will pay 10.49% more.

16 hours or more: 3,624 students will pay 12.07% more.

So why the underhanded hikes? Why not increase tuition and fees 8% and be forthright about it?

The rumor mill says that the Administration originally wanted an 8% increase in tuition and fees, but people balked at such a huge hike. The average 8% increase will still occur, but in an early homage to Halloween, ISU is pretending it is half as large.

If the Administration really wants to raise tuition and fees by 8%, it ought to be honest enough to say so and defend the decision. Deceptive smoke-and-mirrors techniques won’t fool anyone who faces the sticker shock of next year’s bill.

Perhaps it’s time for the Administration to take control of the scoreboard at Hancock Stadium. After all, if ISU could pretend that the other team is scoring half as many points as they really are, the football team might actually win a few games.