Unless you live under a rock and don’t use Facebook or read this newspaper, you’ve heard about plans to bring a block tuition program to UF. UF President Bernie Machen is eager to implement block tuition as soon as possible, but his administration’s proposal is unsuitable for this campus.
However, if UF’s Board of Trustees decides to approve his proposal at its Dec. 9 meeting, block tuition would be on the fast track to adoption by next fall. We all still have the opportunity to take action against block tuition, but we’re running out of time.
In case you’re fuzzy on details, here’s a recap: The administration is proposing a flat-rate tuition program that would charge full-time undergraduates for 15 credits in the fall and spring semesters regardless of the amount of credits they actually take (between 12 and 18).
Undergraduate students currently take an average of 14.1 credits per semester, so every undergraduate would be paying 6 percent more tuition on average under this program.
Right now, you might be thinking: “Just a 6 percent increase? What’s the big deal?”
For most of us, a 6 percent increase doesn’t seem like enough of a reason for us to channel our inner Howard Beale and tell President Machen and Student Government that we’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore.
I mean, it’s only 6 percent, right? And we’ll be allowed to take more credits than we pay for? Why should we care so much?
Here’s why.
For starters, consider how even a relatively small 6 percent increase could be huge to a student who has maxed out their available financial aid but still needs to work just to pay the bills.
According to recent university data, one out of every 10 undergraduates — 3,000 students — are working 20 or more hours per week in addition to the time they spend on their academics, and about one-third of all 30,000 undergrads are spending at least an hour a day at a part-time job.
The administration has publicly stated that the goal of this program is to “encourage” students to graduate sooner, and that they plan to use the additional revenue collected from block tuition to pay for more professors and TAs if demand for courses increases. To them, this program isn’t about the money.
But to financially disadvantaged students, it’s 100 percent about the money.
To us all, it’s about the unjust treatment of fellow students.
If you’re juggling course loads with workloads and are just trying to make ends meet so you can afford to graduate in a reasonable amount of time, but your university’s big-wigs have decided to charge you more for your education because they believe you have too much free time on your hands, they either have ignored your situation, or they have discriminated against you, willingly or otherwise.
In any case, they’re wrong.
As a financially disadvantaged student of a taxpayer-subsidized university, you deserve a fair shake.
Also affected are students enrolled in degree programs that recommend reduced course loads in the fall and spring semesters.
The College of Engineering, the second largest college at UF, in particular offers many degrees that suggest taking 12-14 credits in fall and spring and a few credits in the summer, so that students aren’t overwhelmed by an exceptionally difficult curriculum.
Being an engineering major, I am more familiar with the degrees offered by my college, but I doubt that engineers are the only group in exceptionally difficult degree programs.
If block tuition passes, some of us, in an attempt to minimize our tuition cost, will choose (arguably) unwisely to go against our college’s recommendations and will overload our fall and spring course schedules, rather than distribute a few of those courses over a summer semester.
The rest of us will follow our college’s recommendations but end up paying significantly more for our degrees, because our average annual tuition cost will rise as we continue to take an average 30-credit-hour annual course load.
Why should engineers and other students in difficult degree programs be punished for the careers they’ve chosen?
Aside from the financial implications of block tuition, UF already plans to increase tuition by 15 percent annually until it reaches the national average.
Any additional tuition hike from a block tuition program will exaggerate the discriminatory effects that tuition increases have on the neediest of students among us.
The university administration has failed to address these serious concerns, and Student Body President Ashton Charles, who is the student member of the Board of Trustees and is supposed to act as the voice of the Student Body, has refused to state an opinion on any aspect of their proposal.
It is time that we, as students, demand that Student Government publicly and vocally represents our best interests in this matter of university policy, and that the UF administration reconsiders and/or modifies its proposal so it is in line with the financial and academic realities of all UF undergraduates.
Alden Gillespy is a fourth-year computer science major.
