Travis Hornsby, the author of a letter published Monday in support of block tuition, has unfortunately taken sips of the block tuition Kool-Aid. Over the past few months, I’ve heard the administration espouse the virtues of block tuition, all the while trying to sweep under the rug its dirty little secrets. The fact of the matter is this plan will cost the average student more; there is no way around it.
I am told that this will increase graduation rates and raise our rankings. Graduation rates barely play a role in any college ranking system. Can you guess what’s a more important factor? Low acceptance rates – the very thing the administration keeps claiming it’s trying to raise! You know all of those schools we keep being told have flat-rate tuition? Most of them base it on a 12 credit-hour course load, not the 15 credit-hour one UF plans to do. Yet somehow, they rank above us. Block tuition is likely to actually hurt our rankings.
In the four years I have been here, our tuition and fees have been raised and raised while the percentage of these fees going directly back to students has gotten smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, these are the sort of the things hidden from the average student. So I’m telling you now: Stop being robbed blindly. We all understand the budget problems of the university, but we aren’t children. Let’s stop allowing them to lie to us about where our money goes. This election, vote against block tuition and finally send a message.
Sean Johnson is a UF student and the president of Inter-Residence Housing Association.
Editor's note: This colum refers to this previous column.
