Let’s look at some numbers regarding tuition and fees. When I started at UF in fall 2008, tuition and fees were $126 per credit hour. Bright Futures Scholarship Program still paid 100 percent of this cost. This year, tuition and fees are $146 per credit hour. That’s a $20 increase per credit hour. This becomes $300 more in total for an undergraduate taking 15 credit hours. At the same time, Bright Futures no longer pays 100 percent of tuition and fees costs but a fixed $126. The $20 increase in tuition/fees had to come from the pockets (or other scholarships) of undergraduates.
The Reitz Union fee is proposed to be a $20 flat fee and $3 per credit hour. The $20 becomes about $1.34 when divided over 15 credit hours. So the fee would be a total extra of about $4.34 per credit hour.
Let’s assume that tuition and fees (excluding the Reitz fee) go up by half the amount they did before. This would make next year’s per-credit-hour rate $156. With the fee, it would be $160 per credit hour. If Bright Futures continues to pay $126 per credit hour, this means that undergrads will have to pay a $34 differential next year. (Without the fee and using our assumed increase in tuition cost, it would only be a $30 differential.) This does not seem like much but consider the cost for someone taking 15 credit hours. With the $30 differential, it’s an extra $450 per semester. With the $34 differential, it’s $510 per semester. The difference between the two? Sixty dollars. That’s electric bills for two months.
Undergraduate and graduate students who were already squashed by the economic strain will be squashed even more with general tuition and fee raises. And undergraduates and graduates will continue to feel the stress of not having enough money without substantial financial help in the form of loans. While it would have a higher impact on graduate students, it still would have a high impact on undergrads.
Additionally, the Reitz Union repairs may be necessary, but expanding a building on the backs of students in a time of economic chaos and uncertainty is a loathsome decision at best.
