This Fall semester, students will be greeted with a tuition bill slightly higher than they have seen before — $68 more for in-state students and $200 more for out-of-state students, according to a budget statement by the University System of Georgia. In the moment it may seem minor, but over the course of four years, a student pays $544 more than before, or a whopping $1,600 for out-of-state students. The state-wide 2.5 percent tuition increase for public universities across Georgia is not worth the cost for students.
USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley claims that the increase supports a “balance of quality and affordability” in schools, however, the money does not seem to be going directly towards the students. Instead, according to an article by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the increase is largely being used to fund top faculty members in addition to recruiting new ones.
Professors are important, however, they are already paid between $58 thousand and $180 thousand on average, according to a USG faculty spreadsheet. It seems unnecessary to stretch the wallets of students, many who already juggle multiple jobs to pay for classes, only to increase the salaries of these faculty members.
“I already pay thousands of dollars every semester,” senior education major Rileigh McCoy said. “And our school has over 30 thousand students, what are they doing that requires even more money?”
Not to say that pursuing higher education is not worth the investment — the overwhelming majority of skilled jobs require at least a bachelor’s degree, according to an article by Forbes Magazine. However, that does not give the USG permission to raise tuition prices knowing that students will have no choice but to pay them, especially considering that the students themselves had little to no say in the decision.
“Why does it keep getting harder to go to college without drowning in debt?” junior nursing major Shelby Wilson said. “Degrees just keep getting more and more expensive.”
Unfortunately, no students were involved in the vote to raise tuition at all. The Board of Regents of the USG, who voted for the spike in cost, is a group of 19 members appointed directly by the governor. According to their USG profiles, the vast majority of them are over the age of 50, leaving the voice of young people absent. Unless students reach out to these members, whose emails and phone numbers are all available from the USG website, students risk another increase within the next few years.
Considering that the price of attending college has been raised over 77 percent within the past 10 years, according to the AJC, frequent growth in costs seems routine. While the USG’s board released statements saying that the cost will benefit the student experience, our experience seems to be tainted by the need to get more hours at work to pay for it. Too many full-time students already save every penny to pay their tuition and fees, on top of classes and unpaid internships. Students need to have their voices heard when it comes to their own wallets and their own futures.