Students denounce proposed tuition hike

As Gov. Mark R. Warner prepares to announce budget cuts for all state colleges and universities, JMU student leaders are building opposition to midyear tuition hikes.

"I personally oppose tuition increases, and I will work doggedly to encourage my fellow student senators to oppose them also," said sophomore Matt Gray, president pro tempore of the Student Government Association. "We're talking about tuition increases every semester. At what point do the out-of-state students determine it's just not worth it?"

According to Gray, there will be a special session of the Board of Visitors in November at which they may vote to raise tuition to offset all the budget cuts made by the governor. Gray said students will be encouraged to rally at the meeting, even if the meeting is a closed session.

Senior Andrew Dudik, student representative on the Board of Visitors, said, "Matt and I have spoken about courses of action to take, and our goal in SGA is to see what we can accomplish as a united front … We would like to advertise to the board's members that the student body doesn't want these increases, to highly publicize the special meeting and pack the room with upset students who have personal stories about how a tuition increase will hurt them."

SGA president Levar Stoney said, "We are willing to do whatever it takes alongside the leaders in our community to make the effort on the part of the students, be it speaking engagements, writing letters and whatever is in my powers to fight this, so long as we have the student backing and can all stand together. We will truly be ‘All together one.'"

According to Gray, "This administration has not led. They have done nothing but follow. Real leadership would be proposing alternatives to tuition increases, rather than simply following the example of the other universities and placing the burden on the students and their parents."

According to Charles W. King Jr., senior vice president for administration and finance, "No one in the administration, or on the Board of Visitors, wants to raise tuition. Our objective is to keep the quality of JMU's education high but to keep costs as low as possible."

JMU President Linwood H. Rose was unavailable for comment.

King said, "Let me assure all students that when we are making [a] decision on how to manage these budget reductions, we will not discount their concerns about raising tuition and adding cost to their bill for attending JMU."

According to Stoney, "I don't have a problem with tuition being raised at the end of the year. But there is some concern to do so in the middle of the year, because not everybody at JMU comes from wealthy families, and some families are dependent on financial aid, and we need to look out for those students."

Dudik said, "There are some students who won't be able to come back after the semester, and some students may be having to pick up jobs or more hours [at their current jobs] in order to raise the money to pay for the tuition increase.

According to King, "If our budget is reduced in the 11 percent or 15 percent range, we will have some very hard decisions to make. We will do everything in our power to minimize the effect on our academic programs, and a tuition increase may be one of the options that we will use to insure students are able to register for the classes they need for the spring semester."

Gray said he's working on a SGA Bill of Opinion, which he said is the most powerful thing the SGA can pass. "The bill needs 10 percent — roughly 1,500 — of the students' signatures," he said. "But the school can choose to ignore something like that, and no doubt they probably will."

Freshman Richard Chapin said, "If tuition increases, I will most likely have to do something like join ROTC or sell a kidney to cover the extra cost even though I am paying in-state tuition."

King said, "There has been no decision to raise tuition or to impose a tuition surcharge. That possibility is one of several tools that may be considered by the university's administration and the Board of Visitors in meeting possible major additional reductions to our budget.

"As soon as we know the size of JMU's reduction," King added, "we will evaluate our options on how we manage the budget reduction."