While University Board of Trustees annouced of the tuition increases for undersgrauate in-state students on campus, many responded with concerns regarding the reasons why such increases were occurring.
Last Thursday at the full board meeting, members approved a 6 percent increase on UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga and UT Martin campuses. In-sate returning students will pay $9,684 annually for tuition and fees. and incoming in-state freshmen will pay $11,194 annually. Chancellor Jimmy Cheek addressed the student body through an email Friday to announce the changes, including the incitement of the “Take 15, Graduate in 4” plan, an initiative that takes effect in fall and will require incoming freshmen and transfer students to be charged for 15 hours of classes regardless of how many hours they take per semester. The plan was started in hopes of encouraging students to graduate within four years.
Rising senior in journalism and electronic media Tia Shack said she is familiar with the steady rising cost of tuition, but said she is still unclear what he the extra money goes towards. She said the university should become more proactive with the communications regarding why prices are being raised.
“I do feel that they’re not thinking bout the students because some of us have to continuously take out loans and things in order to pay for college and its only adding to a massive gap of having to repay for debt, so I feel they need to be more considerate when they talk about increasing prices,” Shack said. “I know that coming to college isn’t cheap, but you also want to consider our students. By tuition increasing every year, it causes some issues for certain students.”
Incoming freshmen Angel Conway said she learning about the tuition increase made her feel isolated as an incoming freshman.
“Coming into UT, I already feel like just a number and I feel like they don’t put enough effort into the student’s well being,” Conway said. There’s a lot of stuff I already don’t understand as a freshman and I just feel like they’re throwing a lot of numbers (out there).”
Cheek said that communications with the student body is improving through working with the Student Government Association and other outlets.
“We do try to communicate as much as we can about tuition and fee increases,” Cheek said. “it’s hard to get it to everybody. It’s hard to get anything to everybody on campus.”
Cheek explained that an increase in tuition goes towards campus building improvements, maintaining academic departments, and ensuring the university remains in focus with the goals of a Top 25 university.
“If you think about us trying to compete with these other institutions, it puts us at a significant disadvantage,” Cheek said.
He also said university funds are limited because of the amount of money received by the state, leaving a small amount of money per student in comparison to other state schools.
SGA president Jake Baker, senior in political science with a minor in history, attended the full board meeting Thursday and said he did agree with the disconnection between students and the reasons behind tuition increases. He said that initiatives are in process to building a more informed student body, such as social events similar to the Pancake Breakfast in April where students were served food by administrators, offering a chance to ask questions about student life. He also said SGA and administrators are pushing more communication through social media.
“(Sitting in the audience) You start to understand why there are tuition increases us frequently,” Baker said. “We’re just not getting out all of the information administration has. Most of the students are left in the dark on those decisions, but we’re actively looking to connect the body to the administration.”
