A few weeks ago during the GM debates an important issue came up: the issue of tuition at RPI. The GM candidates differed on their views on how to handle tuition; however, it was clear that this was an issue on the minds of RPI students. One of the interesting points made during the debates was the suggestion that RPI was a business, and therefore would not release its operating budget. However, is RPI really a business? And if so, is that in the best interest of RPI students?
If RPI is a business, then it is a very odd one—no other company in the private sector has the right to ask its customers how much they are capable of paying before telling them how much a product will cost. Universities in America are given reports on how much each student can afford by the federal government, assuming that students fill out the FAFSA form. Also, no other business requires the consumers to not only pay for their own purchases, but to also pay a portion of someone else’s purchase. In President Shirley Ann Jackson’s March 13th e-mail, where she discussed the 7 percent tuition raise that we will be facing next semester, she noted that 46 percent of your tuition is paid into the financial aid system. If RPI were a car dealership and asked you to pay for 46 percent of a stranger’s new auto, you would probably be very angry at that suggestion.
RPI and most American universities clearly don’t act under the same restrictions that normal businesses operate. It may be more interesting to compare RPI to a government rather than a corporation. If RPI is examined as a government, then its tuition policies can be viewed as similar to tax policy. The tuition policies of this institute, and most others across the nation, would then closely resemble the teachings of Karl Marx, and his suggestion that citizens should pay into the government what they are able to, and take what they need out of the government. While this is a noble-sounding policy, it is the same socialist reasoning which doomed the Soviet Union and has corrupted the European labor market. We should fear what consequences these policies might be having at RPI.
The issue of tuition will continue to be an important one on this campus, and it’s time for students to start asking hard questions of the administration. Is it really our responsibility to pay for another person’s education, or should we individually be given the opportunity to opt out of financial aid and do what we please with our money? Should RPI release its budget to the student body so that we can finally see where our money is going? Unfortunately Jackson’s Town Meeting has already passed, with this writer, like many others, stuck in class. More opportunities will come to speak out against the tuition policy in general, the allegations of prestige pricing, or anything else; speak out and let the administration know what you think.
