Page 6 : The Lion's Eye September 20, 2002 Opinion ‘Students left to cany heavy load Welcome back to a new, more expensive school . year. As you know, Penn State's tuition costs have gone up yet again. This time, the increase is an astounding 13.5 percent, the highest increase in college costs in Delaware County. In the past three academic years, we have tied Widener University, a private institution, for the highest percentage increase in tuition among schools in the county. Not many students seem to understand why they're now paying almost $1,000 more per academic year to go to school. Penn State has not been entirely clear about the reasons for the recent hike. Students found out about it through news stories more than anything else. No e-mails were sent, no phone calls were made, and there didn't seem to be much of an effort to inform students through regular mail. All students know is that now they have to pay more and work harder to get through school. The reason that has been issued by the PSU Delco bursar's office for the hike is a cut in state funding, due to a large deficit in the state budget. According to Jeff Wirth of the bursar's office, the deficit is due to the recent economic slide. The state has been trying to keep up with the commitments that were made to the education budget when the economy was booming.- When the slide began, the state tried to keep up with its commitments and that landed it in a deficit of over $1 biilion. And that resulted in this lovely increase in tuition, which is not making anyone happy. Diane Disney, the dean of the Commonwealth College, says that Penn State Delco's tuition is still lower than other campuses outside of the 12 in the Commonwealth system. But what of the students who plan to attend University Park after two years? It's enough of a burden that they have this increase at Delco, but it will really hit them when it's time to move to State College and the students find that their tuition is even more than they expected. Yes, the state budget and the economy is to blame for some of this, but there is a substantial blame to be placed on the university. According to Wirth, tuition is processed through the entire university before the funds are filtered through the campuses. For the Delco campus, a cer- tain amount of funds is allocated from University Park to the Commonwealth College, then, the amount of credit hours that each of the 12 Commonwealth campuses offer is calculated, and multiplied by the amount of money allocated per credit hour. The total is the amount of funding that the spe- cific campus is allocated. Due to the latest tuition hike, the Delco campus should be receiving more funds from the Commonwealth. Why haven't we seen these funds? Common sense and suspicion would tell a person that the extra funds are probably being pumped into University Park. But don't all Penn State students deserve an equal education, equal facilities, equal access, indeed, equal consideration, from the state university? : Especially now that we have to pay an extra thou- sand bucks? The general morale on the Penn State Delco cam- pus has been affected by the latest outlandish tuition increase. And also by the feeling that this increase has gone unexplained. At every level, Penn State must explain its actions. At the cost it demands from its students, it owes them nothing less. "I couldn't get a brand new 2002 "Nothing, my mom and dad pay my "I had to sacrifice every little spend- Cadillac Escalade" tuition" ing money that I had" Matt Stevenson Josh Zimmerman Tara Erickson ‘Sophomore Business Freshman Computer Engineer Freshman Urban Ed "I had no fun this summer because 1 "I had to sacrifice my shopping. 1 "T had to give up my car" had to work to afford tuition" had to cut down on my spending” Deleep Nair Megan Kasmer Virginia Maloney Junior IST Junior Nursing Sophomore Elementary Ed Fion's Eye MAlission Statement We are the newspaper of the Penn State Delaware County campus, serving the students, faculty, administration, and staff of, and visitors to, our campus. We vow to entertain and inform all of our audiences, and we will strive to make each edition better, so that we remain a vital part of the Penn State Delco experience. We also strive to be professional, and follow the highest standards of good jour- nalism. Eye Contact: The Lion’s Eye would like to hear from you. Drop off letters to the editor in the Lion's Eye mailbox, first. floor Main, or email aac136@psu.edu, subject: Letter to editor. All letters must be signed with contact info for ver- ification purposes. PENNSTATE Editor-in-chief: Anteia Consorto Staff writers: Meredith Becker, Gerry Dungan, Sarah Bolaware Assistant Editor: Shawn Pettit Gallatig, Carrie Goldstein, Karen Karaszkiewicz, Shawn County Editorial Board: Anteia Consorto, Manderson, Pam Przybylski, Jennifer Rufo, Amanda Shawn Pettit, Jennifer Rufo, Carrie Trombetti, Dan Zacher The Pion's Eye Goldstein Contact the Lion's Eye: ‘610-892-1258 or aac136@psu.edu
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