Reader reactions: Students to pay extra for tuition in coming year

Readers react to an article about the increased tuition rate. Tuition will be raised $206, or a 2.2 percent increase, which was approved by the Board of Regents. The $3.2 million will go toward paying faculty, staff and graduate students. This is the first increase in two years, with a 10 percent decrease last year and a 5 percent decrease the year before. The increase was state mandated.

Read the full article here.

Jordan Frost: “The state is mandating these pay increases, not WSU. We cannot simply tell the entity that gives us all of our money ‘no we will not follow state law.’ It costs money to run the university, therefore it costs money to attend. … Many groups fought for a tuition reduction, but people fail to understand that when tuition went down, the costs of running the university did not.”

Edit Szanto: “Students pay mandatory student fees for athletics. Including students who work while attending college and still graduate with a lot of student loan debt that they will be paying back over the next 10 – 15 years while trying to raise a family. The focus on athletics and the irresponsible waste around college athletics, in general, is very disheartening.”

Julia P. Smith: “I would like to point out that the article is very clear. Most of this money is going to increase faculty, staff and graduate student wages. It’s not going to the football program or new buildings.”

Ann McCracken: “If tuition needs to be increased then okay, but what are the results? Money keeps going to ‘important’ departments and things like sports, but things like the language departments and anything outside STEM is overlooked.”

Maarika K Vercamer: “I understand fully that WSU and WSU Athletics have two separate budgets. I get that. I also understand that when a donor says ‘allocate this to the athletic department,’ the university is required to put those funds to the appropriate department. Understood. What I don’t understand is why the donor funds that go to athletics cannot go toward getting them out of their $26 million debt.“

Shay Dingfelder: “As a Coug, I’ll support the efforts of the school to stay competitive academically and athletically. We get a great deal for the school we go to. We are in Pullman for God’s sake … $206 is a lot of money, I understand. But the issue of public college getting too expensive is a larger American epidemic. And it’s going to happen, it’s happening at most FBS schools.”

Comeran Tileh: “Man, a 2 percent increase after years of reductions. I wish that would have happened when I was in school. Our increases were in the 14 to 20 plus percent range.”