Spring Break
Former Senator Allard a good choice
Caleb Thorton
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: Opinion
Every time I take a look at my bank statements revealing just how many student loans I have had to take out, I shudder.
OK, it's not that bad. I know plenty of people who owe a heck of a lot more than I do, but I just can't help but wonder why my loan seems to have been growing every semester. And then the obvious answer comes to me -- tuition has gone up since I first got here, and it hasn't just been a few bucks here or there, it's been substantial.
In fact, since 2003, tuition here at CSU was raised 52 percent, while mandatory student fees have gone up more than 70 percent. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but with the way that higher educational funding is set up here in Colorado, that trend is not going to stop anytime soon.
Frankly, you can't blame the University much for raising tuition and fees (though I have sometimes wondered what exactly my liberal arts technology fee has been going to -- especially when watching some documentary on a VHS player that might be older than I am.)
The fact of the matter is that higher education funding in the state of Colorado is bad -- in fact it's downright awful. I'm sure most of you know this already, but Colorado ranks dead last per capita for funding of higher education.
And now we are hearing from the governor's office that higher education funding will be cut even more in this year's budget, with an estimated $100 million out the door for public universities.
So the problem is obvious -- costs are increasing, while funding is decreasing, and the difference is being made up by students. So what is the solution?
Honestly, I'm not sure that there is one simple solution. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much we may complain and moan, we are not getting any more funding from the state this year -- no one is. So in the short term, it looks like we might be stuck with higher tuition and fees in the years to come.
But if we want some kind of help in the long term what we desperately need is someone who can represent CSU down at the state Capitol well enough to bring home the bacon. This is why I believe that splitting the president and chancellor positions was such a good idea -- there just is not enough time for one person to handle CSU and the state legislature.
OK, it's not that bad. I know plenty of people who owe a heck of a lot more than I do, but I just can't help but wonder why my loan seems to have been growing every semester. And then the obvious answer comes to me -- tuition has gone up since I first got here, and it hasn't just been a few bucks here or there, it's been substantial.
In fact, since 2003, tuition here at CSU was raised 52 percent, while mandatory student fees have gone up more than 70 percent. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but with the way that higher educational funding is set up here in Colorado, that trend is not going to stop anytime soon.
Frankly, you can't blame the University much for raising tuition and fees (though I have sometimes wondered what exactly my liberal arts technology fee has been going to -- especially when watching some documentary on a VHS player that might be older than I am.)
The fact of the matter is that higher education funding in the state of Colorado is bad -- in fact it's downright awful. I'm sure most of you know this already, but Colorado ranks dead last per capita for funding of higher education.
And now we are hearing from the governor's office that higher education funding will be cut even more in this year's budget, with an estimated $100 million out the door for public universities.
So the problem is obvious -- costs are increasing, while funding is decreasing, and the difference is being made up by students. So what is the solution?
Honestly, I'm not sure that there is one simple solution. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much we may complain and moan, we are not getting any more funding from the state this year -- no one is. So in the short term, it looks like we might be stuck with higher tuition and fees in the years to come.
But if we want some kind of help in the long term what we desperately need is someone who can represent CSU down at the state Capitol well enough to bring home the bacon. This is why I believe that splitting the president and chancellor positions was such a good idea -- there just is not enough time for one person to handle CSU and the state legislature.
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