Raw Deal
Students pay more, receive nothing

The Board of Trustees has raised tuition for the upcoming school year yet again.
Surprise, surprise.

Students will have the joy of paying 8.7 percent more for tuition starting with the fall semester. This is an increase of $1,300 a year for flat-rate students and $1,050 a year for hourly rate students taking 15 hours a semester.

Of course the increase is a surprise to no one, but most were not expecting such a significant increase in tuition after the financially hefty flat-rate plan was introduced last year.

One can only hope this money will go towards benefiting current students, rather than being tucked away in projects where current students will never see the results.

Plans for a new University Recreation Center and possibly a new Student Center sound great, but very few of the current students paying increases will ever be able to take advantage of such costly projects.

The United States has been in an economic downturn long before Sept. 11, so economic prognosticators at TCU shouldn’t be able to blame terrorism for a weakening endowment. We should have started planning for this a year ago.

Students want smaller classes and more professors, and an enrollment cap may be necessary to achieve this. However, fewer students shouldn’t account for tuition increases.

Granted, all of these things are important, but why not give the students a greater say as to where their money goes? The Student Government Association shouldn’t be the only voice the students have. They represent the student body, but their influence is far less than that of the chancellor’s or any other of the various administrators on campus.

The Board of Trustees does a lot of good for students, but too often their priorities seem to be inconsistent with those of the students. Now, more than ever, compromise between students and administrators should be seen as a key goal that needs to be reached.

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