If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk.
So goes the story with ASU tuition, and it looks like another rise may be on the horizon.
At an open forum with students Wednesday afternoon, President Michael Crow told students it was illogical for them to oppose tuition increases.
Instead, he suggested, students should think of tuition increases and financial aid simultaneously.
“Whenever you argue for less tuition, you’re arguing for the University to have less resources,” he said. “It makes no logical sense.”
It’s hard to buy this sleight of hand for yet another year. Although Crow may be relying on the turnover of students to help simmer the reaction to tuition increases, taking the approach of insulting students’ reasoning isn’t going to get him much further with support for his policies.
Asking us for more money so we can be tempted with nicer, shinier aid packages isn’t asking us to think logically, it’s asking us to blindly follow. Asking us to pay more to receive more aid is like letting someone break our femurs so they can hand us a crutch.
We understand that there is some logic behind Crow’s plan. The Arizona Board of Regents makes universities dedicate a certain percentage of tuition revenue to financial aid programs. Without a doubt, a larger chunk of tuition means a larger chunk of financial aid. More financial aid means more people can get a college education, and more education means a more informed and successful citizenry.
We may also be willing to compromise based on the elaborate vision and progress of the New American University.
The resources available at the University include accomplished faculty members and field professionals who can teach with the conviction and wisdom of entire legacies of success. To be great, we should to be taught and mentored by the greatest. And it’s true that students, both in- and out-of-state, are getting a bargain when it comes to the quality-quantity ratio (even though Arizona tuition came out above the national average this year.)
As long as Crow continues doing an excellent job of improving the ASU brand and turning those buzz words into measurable achievements around our school, we see the reasoning behind continuing to boost tuition.
But that doesn’t mean we’re willing to accept increases without limits.
Students lost the benefits of predictable tuition increases last year, and based on Crow’s statements at the open forum, it sounds like we better prepare for more.
In the past, he has been more eloquent in making students believe in the value of paying more. If his new approach is to tell students they aren’t being reasonable when they don’t want to foot yet another larger bill, we have to wonder where his connection with the student body has gone.
Appearing in open forums like the one on Wednesday is great, but if Crow’s plan is to show us that he can’t relate to our positions as students, raising tuition will do nothing to raise support.
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