A fraction of the student body showed their awareness and opinions to the school’s administration planned 14.7 percent tuition increase for next year.
This increase was presented as apart of a Student Government Association (SGA) meeting but became the only topic discussed, as matters on the SGA to approve budgets for student organizations had to be pushed to a later date.
Provost Lawrence Frank, Vice President of Student Affairs Melvin Terrell and Vice President of Finance and Administration Mark Wilcockson presented the 14.7-percent increase to the student body and the SGA Dec. 7.
“[The] state funding problem is the big issue,” said Frank. He explained that there has been a general trend of less state funding, which causes the school to find ways to gets its money elsewhere. He give details on why the school needed to increase tuition for the students that were enrolled before 2004 or before the Truth in Tuition Act was enacted.
This news on the increase was not met with open arms; many of the students expressed their concern that the school’s administration didn’t do enough to find other ways fix the budget.
NEIU student Rachel Cohen compared the situation to another university that serves the deaf community that hired a president that they didn’t much approve of and the students took charges and protested and won. “It’s time to take a stand,” said Cohen.
Another student’s concern was that if this increase would also increase the number of 300-level course sections. Frank said that it wouldn’t and, “what this 14.7 percent does is keeps us where we are, and we simply don’t have the money for that.” He continued to say that there has been an increase of 14 percent in the number of course sections in the last two years.
Patrick O’Brien, student and editor-in-chief of the Independent, asked what the administration is going to do to help the problem about the amount of space for a class, using his practical criticism class as an example. He explained that about 150 students were trying to get in to one section of a course; those students need to get in to in order to graduate. The following semester, there was still one section open.
“I was not aware of that, but what you can do is write me an e-mail or letter,” explained Provost Frank as a solution. He also said to talk with the chair of the department.
A faculty member argued that $240,000 salary of the school president doesn’t match the effort to make sure that, “the students are supported financially.”
“We still need help,” said Wilcockson, who expressed that the state’s priority on education is primarily primary and secondary, rather than higher, education
SGA Senator Al Cordero explained that he and Student Trustee Peter Michalczyk are working together to for a student-lobbying group to go down Springfield and asked for support from the administration to help the lobbying effort.