The repercussions may be as detrimental as you can imagine. Frightened students are already beginning to make alternative plans for September when they won't be able to come back to Binghamton University. And they're not bluffing. Tuition, after all, is set to rise to $4,800.
That girl sitting next to you in history may be the girl behind the counter at McDonald's come September - and it won't be part-time. She can't afford to attend Binghamton University anymore. Her boyfriend James is managing to stay in the dorms, but he'll be spending a lot of time next to Lauren at Micky D's, making back the money he'll no longer be receiving in refund checks now that the price of tuition has increased while the $6,500 he receives in federal loans remains constant.
The two of them will be serving you a good dose of reality with your fries. The reality is that we may have to suck it up: tuition is going to rise, and it will rise substantially. State University of New York schools were already in a tight spot, with increasing enrollment, inflation and almost eight years without a tuition increase. They also haven't received increased funding from New York State, facing an equally daunting task of dissolving a $12 billion deficit over the next 14 months. Something's got to give. But it can't be New York State residents' right to education.
If it weren't enough of a slap that SUNY's tuition may rise a whopping 41 percent, rumors abound that Gov. George E. Pataki may propose a cut to the Tuition Assistance Program as significant as a halving of the current program. Such cuts would affect as many as 300,000 students.
Worse, 25 to 50 percent of the aid students receive under TAP would be deferred until graduation, and would never be collected by students who do not complete their degrees in a "timely fashion" (most likely four years for a bachelor's degree and two years for an associate's degree). Less than half of all bachelor's degree students in New York graduate in four years, according to The Associated Press.
All this bad news is making our friends in the fast food industry start to sweat. James and Lauren are still plugging away, but they don't have enough time to copy edit for their favorite student newspaper anymore, and their grades are slipping. Their friend Mark just started working the night shift. He receives TAP and his prospects of graduating in four years are looking grim now that he has to work to pay off the remainder of the college tuition TAP no longer supports. Mark's friend Sam wanted a job too, but competition's getting tough over there, and a bad economy is suddenly looking worse.
Mark's little brother won't be able to attend BU anymore as he had planned. Mark's fluency in Japanese has been an asset to BU, but his brother will not have the chance to contribute that same diversity. The money their parents make from their family-owned shop will not be enough to cover the $4,800, or even the portion of that not covered by government aid.
Lauren and friends are on their way to contributing to a worse economy rather than a better one. They are seeing the disintegration of University involvement and community, and of campus diversity and access to education. It's not pretty. We students have got to draw a line.
First, we must demand a reasonable tuition increase. Perhaps the state should have been raising tuition all along to match inflation, but they haven't been, and such a huge boost all at once is too much to bear. If they are going to decide now that a tuition increase is essential, they must implement a graduated increase over a period of years. Students can better plan for steady but small changes over time than a hike that will almost double the price with only a few months to prepare.
Second, we cannot cut funding for TAP, especially when tuition is only rising. We know the state is in a bad place, but the bottom line is the government has to have priorities. And for Pataki, education must move up on his list.
Third, there has got to be a compromise to soften the blow for students already part-way through their SUNY education. It is different for a student to know before she starts her education that a school will be unaffordable, rather than having to swallow a last-minute tuition increase half-way through her schooling, forcing her to drop out. Ideally, a grandfather clause would allow students already enrolled to complete their education at the original cost. At the very least, the state should provide higher loans or other forms of aid to students who will not be able to complete their education without federal assistance.
Lauren and friends would demand at least as much of their state, and so should you.
