GOBBLE-ING TURKEY
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Students dish up food at a Thanksgiving dinner
offered by the Cedar City University 1st Ward of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Most student wards serve turkey dinner before students
head home for Thanksgiving.
ERIN MADSON / UNIVERSITY JOURNAL |
Emotions separate over hike
By TYLER JOHNSON
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL
SUU students said they have mixed feelings over a proposal
made by administrators and state officials to increase
next year’s tuition by 21.5 to 23.5 percent.
Last week, SUU administrators decided to propose a 17
to 19 percent increase in addition to the state-mandated
4.5 percent tuition hike.
The proposed hike will make SUU more expensive than Weber
State University by $80, but less expensive than Utah
State University and the University of Utah, The Salt
Lake Tribune reported on Nov. 21.
Other schools in the state, like Weber State, Utah Valley
State College, the University of Utah and Utah State University
may also see double-digit tuition increases next year.
Matt Glazier, SUUSA president, said he expects SUU’s
tuition hike to be the highest in the state.
The proposals came after government officials discovered
a shortage in Utah’s budget this fiscal year.be
seriously impacted by the national economic downturn,”
Gov. Michael Leavitt said in a letter addressed to the
state’s
“Utah, like nearly every other state in the nation,
continues to
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educators.
“It appears that our current estimate of state revenues
will not be achieved and unless we take action we will have
an estimated $80 million to $140 million budget shortfall
for the current fiscal year,” Leavitt said.
Dean O’Driscoll, assistant to the president for university
relations, said the state’s shortfall has affected
SUU’s budget and a tuition hike is necessary for the
university to stay afloat.
The proposed hike (a combination of a first-tier increase
of 4.5 percent and a second of 17 to 19 percent) equals
a total of a $222 increase in tuition per semester per student.
“I think this is a joke,” said Sarah Hill, a
freshman sociology major from Bountiful. “They are
already making us take classes that are not necessary for
us to take, pay for things that are not necessary for us
to have, and pay triple for books that sometimes are useless.
Some people don’t get everything paid for or have
the money to fork over.”
Other students on campus admitted the tuition hike is large
but said they feel as long as the administrators use the
new money wisely, they are OK with the increase.
Jeremy Schroeder, a sophomore athletic training major from
Tempe, Ariz., said he supports the tuition hike as long
as the money is used to better the academics on campus instead
of “buying nice pictures and murals” to display
on campus.
O’Driscoll said the majority of the money from the
proposed hike will go to help faculty and staff development
and retention. The university wants to increase salaries
and professional development and create one or two new jobs.
Roughly 25 percent of the proposed increase will be designated
for the university’s retention and recruitment efforts,
including placing academic advisers in all of the colleges
on campus.
The university lost $523,000 from its budget this semester
because administrators expected more students to attend
SUU than actually attended. Roughly 15 percent, or $200,000
of the proposed new money will go toward the deficit.
About 10 percent of the new money will be used to purchase
new student financial aid software to replace the outdated
version currently in use.
Roughly 3.5 percent of the new money will be used for student
financial aid.
O’Driscoll said these numbers are rough figures and
more detail will be given at an open forum Monday at 4 p.m.
in the Starlight Room, the first day of school after the
Thanksgiving break. All students are invited to attend this
meeting to voice their opinions, he said.
O’Driscoll said he looks forward to sharing the detailed
breakdown with the students so they will understand why
the hike is necessary.
He said he thinks some uninformed students will have their
doubts about the increase, but those who are looking to
come to SUU and what the school can do for them will be
supportive of the hike.
“I would owe you an apology if we didn’t do
this because it’s your future, your diploma, not ours,”
O’Driscoll said, addressing the students who may not
support the increase. “We can’t give you the
very best without resources.”
While the proposed 21.5 to 23.5 percent hike may seem high,
O’Driscoll and Glazier said it’s not enough.
If the proposed tuition hike gets approved, faculty will
still be underpaid and not enough faculty jobs will be created,
Glazier said.
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