One of the primary considerations for high school seniors in their college search is the affordability of an undergraduate education. The University of Idaho has long served as an attractive option for high schoolers in the Northwest due to its relatively low cost and status as a land grant institution.
Many Vandal students choose to attend school in Moscow because of the reasonable expenses associated with attending an academically prestigious institution.
But UI’s reputation as an affordable option may soon be in jeopardy.
On Wednesday, UI President Chuck Staben startled the Vandal community when he requested tuition fees be raised 6 percent for in-state students and 9 percent for those attending out-of-state. After a brief discussion, the State Board of Education (SBOE) shot down the initial proposal but greenlit a 3.5 percent increase in tuition fees across the board.
Although an annual addition of fees should generally be expected, the lofty percentages Staben requested are alarming for a number of reasons.
One of the more obvious problems is that increasing costs would likely hurt a large majority of students on campus.
According to the UI website, the annual cost of undergraduate in-state tuition is just over $7,000 per year, while out-of- state students spend more than $22,000 during that same period.
The proposed increases would have resulted in the addition of over $420 in fees for in-state students and nearly $2,000 for students attending from outside Idaho.
Paying for college is already a stressful experience for many Vandals, and the introduction of additional costs would only force students to shoulder an even heavier burden.
The proposed fees would also hinder Staben’s long-term goal of expanding enrollment at UI by 50 percent over a 10- year period. Staben even referenced this dilemma during his presentation to SBOE, saying the proposal seemed “counterintuitive” and would “contradict the board’s motivation to keep tuition low.”
If the cost of tuition were to skyrocket by the percentages that administration proposed, then why would high schoolers be interested in applying to UI?
Although increasing tuition is necessary to help pay for faculty salaries and institutional projects, the student body is the entity that suffers when the fees are increased by a hefty percentage.
UI administrators need to take a hard look at their goals and consider the human and financial costs of achieving them.
—JG