It’s that time of the year again. Opening your computer to a new message from President Michael Schill usually means one thing: tuition is increasing.
But it isn’t all bad news. While we will all have to pay thousands more in tuition, President Schill was nice enough to provide pizza, salad and refreshments at a student forum he hosted. So while some of you may have to skip some meals to save money for tuition, at least you can look forward to Schill’s once-a-year pizza-and-salad student extravaganza.
A Daily Emerald article last year found that, since the 2009-10 school year, “Tuition has increased about eight times, according to inflation-adjusted figures from theUO institutional research website.” The UO estimates that one year, not including personal expenses, will cost residents $25,120 and non-residents $49,015.
But yearly tuition increases and a higher-than-ever-before cost of college isn’t unique to the University of Oregon. What makes the UO different is that other schools often help lower these costs through academic and need-based scholarships.
The Department of Education produced a website called Shopping Sheet, which allows graduating high school students to enter their academic and financial information for an estimated cost to attend different schools. I attempted to use statistics of an average in-state student, such as using the joint household income in the United States of $60,000, a GPA of 3.3, an ACT score of 25 and an assortment of other average statistics.
At Portland State University, this student received $11,300 a year in estimated grants and scholarships. At the University of Washington, a much more difficult school to get into, this same student received $19,700 a year in estimated grants and scholarships. At the University of Oregon, this student received $0 in estimated grants and scholarships.
To make this high cost of tuition even worse, the UO is not providing an education that is worth what they are charging. The US News and World Report compiles one of the most reputable university rankings every year based on graduation rates, faculty resources, expert opinion and an array of other variables. They also rank the value of universities based on academic quality in comparison to the cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid.
If a school costs a lot, but provides a lot of aid for students, it could still be ranked highly. While the University of Oregon ranked as the 104th best university in the United States, it came in as having the 184th best value. For reference, Oregon State ranked below the UO in overall rankings but came in as having the 138th best value.
We’ve heard it all before — the UO is in a budget crisis and tuition is higher than the administration would like because state funding isn’t there. State funding isn’t likely to increase anytime soon, which means the only way to lower the cost of attendance for students is through private donations. Instead of using tuition increases as an answer for the budget crisis, the administration needs to bring in more scholarship money through private donors. If some donors have no issue giving millions of dollars for athletic facilities, they ought to consider giving more money for scholarships as well.
