Differential tuition stinks.

The garbage the administration is spoon-feeding to the Student Senate about raising it is making things smell even worse.

Back in ’96, the Student Senators decided to add $50 each semester to the cost of tuition to pay for things like internships, trips and freshmen experience courses. It called the fee differential tuition.

That was long enough ago so that most students on this campus today had no say in dishing out an extra 100 bucks a year to go to school. Many students, like me, would go through college without seeing any benefit from the extra dollars they paid.

Now the administrators want us to pay more.

Instead of questioning the actual need for an increase, the Senate is practically just accepting the administrative fund-raising plea as fact. They accept answers like, the fee should increase because inflation has.

Senate is deciding whether to have a flat amount or percentage increase each year. Little thought has been given to not raising the tuition at all.

Both Student Senate presidential candidates have noted the importance of increasing differential tuition.

I just don’t see it. Is raising this amount important?

The administration says it will not be able to keep up with the amount other UW-System schools (that adapted the program after us) will get.

I haven’t heard of any programs falling short because a lack of funding from differential tuition. Provost and Vice Chancellor Ron Satz said in his presentation to the Student Senate, that some programs have been turned down because of a lack of funding from differential tuition. But there is little proof that the education we are receiving here is at risk. Maybe when visible curriculum damage occurs, I will give more thought to adding money to differential tuition.

What I hear about differential tuition doesn’t sound good.

I see a lot of students taking trips that make me wonder why the school (or I) is paying.

And when did getting an internship become a responsibility of the school? Any student motivated enough to get an internship can go out and get one with a little help from their professors.

To add icing to the proposal that Senate seems to be viewing as sugar-sweet, the administration thought of a way to make paying more money sound good. They say they are thinking of including the money received from the added tuition in the Foundation’s campaign for a gigantic ($20 – 30 million) amount of money by the 2005-06 fiscal year. If we do this, it would be like investing in the Foundation.

Let me just say that if I ever donate money to the Foundation, it will be when I actually have some. It won’t go toward helping students find internships, go on trips or attend freshmen experience courses. It will go to something I value.

The Senate needs to look closely at what it passes when it comes to differential tuition. They should remember that most of the student body they represent had no choice about paying the extra $100. Students should have more options than a flat increase or a percentage increase when it comes adding more to the fee that they never voted on to begin with.