Tuition rates increased as UI expanded and Idaho cut funding
Why is my tuition so expensive? What does it even pay for?
Let’s start by answering the question of where tuition money goes. It is complicated, because each individual dollar students pay is not allocated directly.
Max Cowan | Argonaut
Answers to questions regarding university policies, procedures and student life
Instead, it is added to a pool of general education money, which also draws from state funds and the University of Idaho endowment. While the university has other expenses for things like research, I’ll focus on these general education expenses, which is where tuition money is used.
While students may think of the university as just a campus — a collection of buildings — the truth is only 17 percent of general education dollars pay for the physical university. The majority of our expenses pay for salaries. With over 1,200 fulltime equivalent faculty and staff paid for through general education, the heart of the university is the people.
So far, we have only talked about tuition, which is the largest portion of what students pay to UI. There are also student fees, which are about $1,000 a year. Breaking down these fees could be a discussion in and of itself, but in simple terms this pays for events, activities, campus offices and athletics.
The total tuition and fees have risen dramatically in recent years. While in-state tuition was $4,385 in 2006, it is now $6,765. This jump of nearly 50 percent in 10 years is hard to fathom for many students.
While there are a lot of plausible explanations for this increase in the cost of schooling, there are two that are the most compelling. The first is the growth of what UI does as an institution. Universities nowadays have to compete with thousands of other institutions students could attend. To try and attract students, UI has increased the services it provides.
Higher education has seen an arms race of recreation centers, campus offices, dining options and student activities. While higher education started out as little more than professors and buildings, students increasingly demand more support and opportunities. These amenities have in part driven up the cost of higher education.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Things like tutoring and academic support, the Counseling and Testing Center and campus activities have helped make our institution thrive. An active and engaged campus helps students succeed and gain experiences that will serve us well when we enter the workforce. This growth in services would explain a shift in cost over the long term, but it doesn’t explain the steep increase in cost we have seen recently.
The second reason, and perhaps a more relevant explanation for the rise in the cost, is due to a decrease in state funding. Since 2009, state funding for UI general education dropped by nearly $16 million. With this decline, the university is forced to raise tuition in order to fund the institution.
With tuition rising this much, we need to take a stand as students to address the underlying problems. First and foremost, be in touch with your state legislator. Millennials are the generation least likely to contact their representatives. If legislators don’t hear from students about the importance of funding higher education, they will continue to cut support. The second thing we can do is communicate with the State Board of Education, a board that sets tuition increases for all state universities in Idaho.
Max Cowan can be reached at [email protected]