As if the tuition increase at ASU weren't enough, the community colleges are following in our footsteps. The 10 Maricopa community colleges intend to bump up their tuition another $5 per credit hour by this summer - marking the largest increase in 10 years.
Though $5 barely buys a cup of coffee nowadays, it quickly adds up. Estimates are it will generate an extra $10 million annually. That's a whole lot of coffee.
The problem is that the state did not cut the financial lifelines of these colleges as it did to ASU. In fact, the colleges' affordable prices are why they anticipate another 6 percent increase in enrollment as loads of students with their pockets turned out are opting for the lesser of two evils.
Plus, with the state axing $4 million from dual enrollment programs in local high schools, the community colleges can bank on having more incoming freshmen without one credit under their belts. They have acted as good little capitalists and decided to make money off these circumstances.
You might think this money would go to some new buildings, perhaps a student center, or maybe raising the pay for the professors already there - Guess again. So far, the proposed plans include hiring 25 more faculty members, although their professor/student ratio is already better than ASU could hope for.
In the spirit of helping out lower-income students, the schools have promised to save some of this revenue for scholarships. This should sound familiar since it's the same claim ASU made when going above and beyond offsetting the state budget cuts.
This idea of paying back the less fortunate students by taking money from the rest of us emulates what is wrong with collegial policy. Money meant to help the poor should not come from the working class and run though the sticky fingers of administration where the bulk of it is trapped.
Instead of making the costs more affordable, they promise some a free ride while others must work that much harder to meet costs. Though so few seem to view this as a major concern, many prospective students will feel the burn. When schools punish those that support them under the guise of helping the needy, they are showing a lack of concern for their students.
No lower-income student has difficulty receiving financial aid, even when their money must come from loans instead of grants and scholarships. If college education is as valuable as we have been made to believe, then any graduate could afford to repay such loans.
We are told that our degrees will earn us thousands more a year than those without such an education. Thus, if we wind up on an even plane, no student should have to pay for another's tuition.
A raise in tuition based solely on meeting deficit demands, pay raises and inflation is valid. But hurting the many while helping the few, only to see them receive so little of this money's effects in the end, does more harm than good.
Even if the schools did not allocate extensive funds for need-based scholarships, there would still be plenty of merit-based scholarships out there that don't rely on stolen money. Philanthropy will provide where the institution does not, as private scholarships afford many students all the help they will need.
Whether claiming to provide scholarships or not, increasing tuition beyond inflation is not an act of mercy, but of greed - even if it is only five bucks.
Darren Todd is an English Literature senior. Reach him at lawrence.todd@asu.edu.
