By DAN EVOLA

Student body Vice President

GUEST COLUMN

I was recently invited to a meeting regarding this year’s increase in tuition with some prominent members of the administration. Students may not pay attention to most of the work that the administration does, but a tuition increase is always the biggest moan and groan around, especially after last year’s increase of over 13 percent. So, I brought my pen and note pad ready to crunch some numbers, and braced myself for what was ahead.

As soon as I took my seat, I was handed a rather thick packet of graphs and charts, containing information about Base Appropriations per FYES (Fiscal Year Equated per Student), Cost Containment Cumulative, and General Fund Expenditures — just the kind of information that I wanted to get hit with at 9 a.m. on a summer morning.

Finally, somewhere around page nine, I saw the magic number. This year, tuition will increase by about 6.3 percent for the average undergrad student at Oakland University.

Now, before you destroy this paper in a fit of rage, let me take a minute to break down how this number came to be. It is no secret that tuition has been increasing consistently for years, so no one was expecting a decrease. This newest increase is due to a couple of factors; I will try to explain the ones I understand.

First off, OU eliminated non-mandatory fees, including the graduation fee, transcript fee, orientation fee, etc. These fees were rolled into tuition, increasing it by one percent. This means that, without the elimination of non-mandatory fees, tuition would be increased by 5.3 percent. You would still be paying the money, just under a different label.

The rest of the 5.3 percent is really scattered, but I am assuming most of it is coming from Michigan’s “wonderful” economy and the government’s decreasing support of education.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, the next step is figuring out how to fight future tuition increase. Every year, the state of Michigan offers colleges and universities money for each student that enrolls. OU’s state appropriated money is around $3,645 per FYES, the third lowest amount of money given to any other Michigan university. The highest is Wayne State University, given $8,680 per FYES.

Why does OU get the third lowest appropriation while we have the second highest growth rate in recent years, as well as one of the best graduation rates? Simple answer: Politics. If the government offered OU just the average amount of money offered to other schools (about $5,200 per FYES), the tuition increase could be cut drastically.

I believe that one of the biggest problems we are having is that all of our protesting and rallying in Lansing is done alongside other schools. We must realize that we are competing for the same money as they are, and the state of Michigan cannot afford to just start offering more money to colleges.

The Student Congress can organize trips to Lansing to protest, but they are useless without your support. This year, if you want to make a difference, be ready to hop on the bus — we’re going to Lansing!