Janie Boschma

For all of the university’s employees and especially its students, maintaining academic excellence is obviously top priority. However, the “Blugold Commitment” also begs the question of just how much students are willing – or able – to pay for higher education.

Part of the plan, introduced by Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich last week, would hire more professors, in turn improving course availability to help students graduate in four years.

The goal increase is between $1,000 and $2,500 a year. If approved, increases would start in small increments of a minimum $250 a year and move to $500 the next year and so on. However, the exact numbers are still anyone’s guess, and therein lies the problem.

It is hard to shoot down or support the proposal without knowing exactly what the plan would bring to the campus, especially when the high estimates are more than double the low estimates. It is hard to determine whether a hefty monetary sacrifice by students will be worthwhile without knowing which departments will get what share of the new faculty and exactly how much it will help students graduate on time. We need the administration to be open and transparent with the decision-making process now and until the “Blugold Commitment” lands on the regents’ desks.

We also encourage the administration to take a closer look at excess spending throughout the university and consider other options before putting many students into deeper financial crisis. Before jacking up tuition, an alternative might be to offer more summer and winterim classes if getting students out in four years is really the issue.

We feel that most students, who take the initiative to plan ahead, can easily graduate in four years. We also don’t feel it is too much to ask to have more professors teaching during the summer and on winter break to improve the percentage of students who graduate in four years (26 percent). Amid $8 million in cuts in state aid, more sacrifices are going to have to be made.

The fact that more money would be available for financial aid and scholarships under the plan eases the pain for those who would be eligible. But even so, that is little consolation to many who already cringe at the thought of graduating and having to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in loans.