Dear Editor:
Administrators would like a 20 percent tuition increase, totaling 65 percent over the next four years, right? What are you thinking? Do you believe that such a massive increase in tuition will cause increased enrollment in the future? Moreover, will this increase extinguish the stigma SIU graduates face due to the fact we are known as a party school, or increase our chances when entering the workforce?
It was reported that fall enrollment decreased by 954 students. Are you sure this proposed increase will not further decrease new student enrollment? Tuition is projected to cost $7,023.30 for next year's freshmen by their senior year. That sure gives my middle-class family an incentive to send my siblings to SIU over other state run universities.
How do you expect students who neither receive an adequate amount of financial aid nor come from an upper middle-class to rich family to adapt to this increased cost? Do you plan to match the increase in financial aid and graduate assistants funding at the same rate as tuition? Probably not! Why should the students, the essence of any college, be forced to suffer because of the state government's and SIU administration's budgetary mistakes?
Why not decrease the administrative budget equally to the increase in tuition? Or better yet, why not adjust administrative salaries to the cost of living in Carbondale when comparing them to other institutions. This way we can avoid overpaying for more academic politicians.
Chris Kramer
senior, economics
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
