Like many Alligator readers, I have been barraged with fliers, posters and Facebook posts asking me to protest the planned 15-percent tuition increase. Unlike the oft-cited “everyone” who opposes tuition hikes, I am frustrated by the debate.
Travis Hornsby’s March 19 column, “Tuition increases won’t do UF any favors” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
In Hornsby’s column, he argued against the tuition increase by reporting that scholarships for UF students have decreased markedly and rightly noted that the absurd cost of attendance at other schools does not justify tuition increases here.
He pointed out that raising tuition to the national average is inappropriate considering Gainesville’s cost of living.
Although I agree with Hornsby’s position on scholarships, it is a separate issue.
While he was correct on the issue of the cost of living, his counterargument stated nothing about raising it in general.
Allow a short, hypothetical digression.
If I asked you for $100 now, and in return I would increase your salary when you graduate by $100,000, would you accept my offer?
I’m going to go ahead and assume you said yes.
Suppose instead I asked for $1,600 and in return offered an expected salary increase of $12,300.
My guess is that you would take that deal, too.
The last offer wasn’t quite hypothetical.
In-state tuition at Georgia Tech is $7,282 per year, about $1,600 more than UF’s $5,700 per year.
According to PayScale.com, the median starting salary at Georgia Tech is an impressive $57,500 per year — $12,300 more than UF’s $45,300.
Increased tuition isn’t just money out of your pocket. There is a positive return to the marginal
tuition dollar in the form of better professors, facilities and graduate students, all of which are key to a university’s success.
A tuition increase is, at its core, an investment decision that requires quantitative analysis.
Of course, increasing tuition by $1,600 won’t magically turn us into Georgia Tech, nor will it assure a $12,300 increase in starting salary.
However, anyone who says tuition should (or should not) be increased without presenting a model of the costs and benefits is, frankly, being disingenuous.
Does the planned increase make sense? I don’t know.
What I do know is that I have yet to be presented with any real evidence, or any real argument for that matter, by either side.
I would like to think that any student smart enough to be accepted to this university is also smart enough to understand the complexities of the issue and honest enough to not protest without an argument.
James Gibson is a math and statistics major at UF.
