Tuition should not be raised in difficult economic times

Recently, according to what I can only assume was a schoolwide e-mail, TCU’s Board of Trustees voted to raise tuition for full-time students from $26,900 to $28,250. I believe it was called one of the smallest tuition increases in a decade. To me, the worst part of that e-mail was it implied that this ‘small’ tuition increase of $1,500 – and an equal 5 percent increase in the financial aid pool, was a favor to students. It must be very, very easy for the Board of Trustees to sit at a round table in its conference room and vote on a $1,500 increase in tuition, knowing well that their kids don’t have to worry about paying for college. They say that they’ve added an additional pool of $350,000 to be made available as financial assistance to ‘those who qualify.’ Who qualifies at TCU? I’m not even getting enough money to go here and my family (though not necessarily poor) definitely cannot afford TCU, though my dad was in the Army for 20 years. Side note: it’s a great system we have in the U.S. when my dad, who is a veteran of two wars, makes less than bank and business executives who drove us into an economic crisis, but I’ll save that rant for another day. The fact is TCU is an expensive private school. A widely accepted opinion is most people’s families can afford to send their children here. I work five days a week as a waiter to make up the roughly $6,000 a year that isn’t covered by scholarships, and by the way, loans are just as bad as paying for college now, except you’ll pay for it later with interest while trying to start a career. In addition, I can’t afford to live on campus, and I drive half an hour to school everyday. I am behind on my payments even though every Friday night I work at least an eight-hour shift with no breaks. An extra $1,500 is definitely more than enough to convince me to transfer to another school, even if it is a step down from the TCU. So, Board of Trustees and Chancellor Victor Boschini, I beg you, please send me no more e-mails acting like a 5 percent tuition increase is a favor, because it’s not. Want to do me and every other person, rich or poor, who is pouring their hard earned cash into this school, a favor? How about you lower tuition during an economic crisis. It is honestly beyond my comprehension why a school with an endowment of more than a billion dollars would have to raise tuition by even .0000005 percent. A 5 percent tuition increase from a school with this much money isn’t a favor, it’s an insult.

Sincerely,

A student paying for an already over-priced college.

Nathan Pesina is a freshman English major from Fort Knox, Ky.

‘Underrated’ chant needs to be silenced

Seriously, is there a more senseless cheer in college sports than the chanting of “overrated” when your team is on the verge of beating a higher-ranked opponent? It has come up twice recently at TCU – once when the football team defeated then No. 9 BYU, 32-7, and again last Friday night when the TCU Lady Frogs beat No. 3 Maryland, 80-68.

Let’s think for a minute folks. Your team is about to upset a nationally-ranked opponent. You’ve got two possible explanations for this: a. We’re TCU. We know we’re good. We’ve been underrated, haven’t gotten the respect and attention we deserve, and now that we’ve got the opportunity to demonstrate that against a top-quality opponent, we’re showing the college sports world TCU can play with the big boys (or girls); or b. We’re TCU. We’re really not that good, so if we’re beating you, it must be because you’re not that good either. You must be overrated.

Why in the world would you choose option b? Come on, Frog fans. Get out there and support the Frogs. But do it with some class and even some elementary logic. Leave the “overrated” chant at home.

Michael R. Butler is associate dean of the AddRan College and an associate professor of economics from Fort Worth.