Of tuition freezes and publicity stunts
Tuition freezes sound like a godsend. The cost of college has soared so high in recent years that even Congress is finding it necessary to take up the problem. Freezing tuition seems like the beginning of a resolution. And students, with their heavy debt burdens, rejoice at hearing about the possibility. After all, a couple thousand dollars every year in added tuition can amount to many more loans.
Princeton University was playing off this sentiment when it announced last week it would not raise tuition for 2007-08. Its tuition will remain at $33,000. But the tuition freeze isn’t as exciting as it sounds. It’s great publicity, but it turns out students will see hardly any benefits in their total bills. Room and board costs will rise a colossal 19.3 percent. This, at a school where more than 97 percent of undergraduate students live on campus.
Total expenses at Princeton still will rise by 4.2 percent, compared with 4.9 percent in the previous year, which is hardly much of a decrease. Princeton administrators have said the increase in room and board is to more accurately reflect living costs.
Northwestern is not following suit, and we think this is a smart idea. There is little to gain in reputation for NU to copy Princeton’s tactics, and because only 65 percent of the NU student body lives on campus, living costs may have to rise even more to offset the tuition freeze. Upperclassmen living off-campus may benefit, but not incoming freshmen that NU would be trying to recruit with the publicity.
ASG: Stop reviving dead U-Pass debate
Associated Student Government members showed their unending appetite for surveys – no matter how redundant or unscientific – by voting Wednesday to poll students once again through HereAndNow. Their survey, which intends to gauge student opinion regarding U-Passes, overlaps not only with another conducted recently, but also returns to an issue that has long been decided.
U-Passes already have been included as a possible initiative in the University Budget Priorities Committee poll. That poll has been available online since last Thursday, giving students ample opportunity to opine on the initiative. Results of the new poll will only end in the hands of the same committee.
ASG also is overlooking the validity of this type of polling. Online surveys are skewed in favor of U-Passes because those who support them are most likely to seek out and vote on the survey.
Despite the skewed system, surveys have shown resounding opposition to U-Passes in the past. Students rejected them in February 2004, with 72 percent of responding students voting against them.
Such an overwhelming failure should have sent a clear message to ASG, but the few students who would benefit are still attempting to push U-Passes onto the student body.
ASG senators are giving undue attention to a dead issue. The previous conclusion was that most students wouldn’t use the passes enough to merit the $60 per person per quarter fee. No recent changes should have altered this fact.
Supporters of U-passes might be the loudest, but most students don’t share their opinions. ASG senators should keep this in mind if the issue arises again and stop appeasing these students by wasting resources on yet another poll.
A new poll should only be merited if it uses scientific methods that could more accurately appraise student opinion.
