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Show Old tuition scare... old scarecrow. And with the legislature it's the old tuition scare. Well, folks, even though the Utah State Legislature closet of business Saturday, and even though they ve managed to officially block the prospects of a tuition hike, the old tuitio lives on. If i, doesn't happen this year, it'll happen next year or the year after o the year after that. ..ad infinitum... So folks, all of you who have breathed a hapPV sigh of rele start worrying again. Even if you don't have to worry this year the pine tuition hike will eventually affect you again. It's funny. The University is caught in a e legislature doesn't give them the money they need, they have to cut programs and the quality of education or pawn the e tudents. Among those so-called frivolit.es which felt the pa nful h ce of the legislative knife are such programs as Ballet West. KUER and n past years, freshman orientation, the opera company and the minority programs. And if the University administration tries to raise tuition they almost automatically cut students off the academic rolls. So its kind ot darned if you do, darned if you don't situation. Sure such things as the Alumni Fund Drive and the University Development Fund aid us. And even the athletic department though many would like to say it didn't, does bring in additional funding for the University. But what it all points out is the fact that this growing institution has got to find a reasonable way to be funded. One way might be to ask the legislature to fund institutions on a set per-student basis, thus the big schools wouldn't always be taking it in the gut. Another way might be to set some sort of long-range plan for tuition increases so increases are continuous but gradual. Face it It'll cost a lot more to fund a student's education next year. And it'll cost more the year after that. And universities and the legislature are going to have to sit together someday and come up with a long-range plan. So folks, if you think the scare is over, forget it. It's just begun. In fact it's been continuing for a long time. And if there isn't some sort of long-range program, students may spend most of their years worrying about J!0 more a quarter forever... ...will haunt us again |