Students wanting to attend a four-year university now face the added difficulty of rising fees.
According to College Board, which tracks trends in college costs, a majority of four-year public universities increased
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Some universities have even invented extra fees in order to fund and maintain campus infrastructure. For example, the University of Oregon is charging a $51 “energy surcharge” for rising electricity costs and a $270 “technology fee” for computer service. On top of that, students pay a $371.25 fee for the campus health center, a $135 fee to maintain buildings and grounds, and a $624 “incidental fee” for student activities. (New York Times, Sept. 4).
These fees come on top of the costs typically associated with college: tuition, books, housing, school materials and other personal costs.
At Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York, undergraduate students pay $831 in fees—for athletics, technology, transportation, recreation and other items—per semester, on top of $2,175 in tuition.
Other campuses like Montana State University are charging for the first time a $10 library fee. The University of North Dakota has imposed a $37 per semester fee to pay for pulling its whole athletic program into Division I. And students at Arizona State University face a new $25 technology fee.
“And I remember calling the office and asking what these fees were,” proclaimed Lorena Laderos, a student at the University of Oregon. “Why is it we we’re having to pay for energy or whatever? From what I remember, they didn’t do a very good job of describing it.”
These are just some of the many universities and colleges in the United States that have imposed huge fee increases on working-class students.
When college tuition is increased every year, politicians and administrators grant themselves generous salaries and pensions for their great job in making college less affordable. This is a popular trend within the California State University system headed by Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who recently waged an anti-union campaign against the California Faculty Association during their negotiations for a new contract.
Colleges blame higher enrollment and increased teacher salaries, among other things, for the increasing costs.
Those claims, however, ring hollow, particularly since the largest and most prestigious colleges have billion dollar endowments that make it possible for them to provide tuition at a much-discounted price.
The real problem is the lack of funding for education. Hundreds of billions are spent on imperialist war and militarism each year, while much less goes to fund education and other necessary social programs.
The university system is set up as a for-profit industry. It is held to the same financial principles as the rest of the for-profit world: squeeze every penny possible out of your workers and customers.
Tuition at private colleges has even made it more difficult for working-class students to afford. George Washington University became the first college to break the $50,000 mark when it approved tuition of $39,210, a food allowance of $3,400 and housing of $8,500 for the incoming class of 2011.
The current situation facing students from working-class families is growing more difficult each year. The education system is ripe for thoroughgoing change.
Education is a basic human right. Students, revolutionaries and progressives must begin to raise the demand for free education at all levels. No fee—whether it is for tuition, books or electricity—should stand in the way of a student’s access to college.
