Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Bridget Brown    Matthew Dulin 
Ray Hafner                  Geronimo Rodriguez                Lisa Street

Don't do it

It's official. Tuition deregulation in Texas was a bad idea.

University officials who promised they wouldn't abuse the power to raise tuition without constraints lied. And it will be the students at those universities, including UH, who will pay the price.

In the latest show of deregulation at work, Texas A&M University, following in the footsteps of several Texas public universities, announced a plan Thursday to raise tuition by $19.50 per semester hour for the Fall 2004 semester.

UH has already raised tuition by $19 per semester hour for this semester, a huge increase by any standard.

And now the UH Board of Regents is considering raising tuition again. The board will decide before April 1 whether to raise tuition for the Fall 2004 semester. Before they get any ideas, we have a few thoughts to interject.

To the UH regents: don't do it. Don't raise tuition again.

We, the UH students, can't afford it.

Many UH students are here because they are from the Houston area, live at home (either with their parents or in their own homes) and work part- or full-time in order to pay tuition to keep going here.

UH President Jay Gogue has repeatedly stressed the importance of raising money for the University from alumni donations. One can only hope he intends such donations to help offset the rising costs the University faces.

Raising tuition is the easy way out. The University needs to find ways to spend less money. Administrative costs have skyrocketed over the past decade as UH finds ways to pay its top administrators more and more.

Money needs to be raised from UH alumni. Research funds need to be sought and obtained with more energy than ever before.

Students are the group least capable of affording an increase in the cost of higher education. Another tuition raise will make it more difficult than ever to attend UH.

Soon it won't be the "working man's university" its founders made.
Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu