Florida's annual tuition hikes have many casualties

From the Orlando Sentinel

by Beth Kasabb

Enough with the sophomoric power games that Tallahassee is playing with our universities.

Too much time is spent focusing on political sport. Such as how Sen. JD Alexander is creating his own pet university — Florida's 12th — even as the state is cutting higher-education dollars and raising tuition at record rates.

Let's take a break from the analysis of how lawmakers are raiding universities' cash reserves like piggy banks.

Let's zoom in on the real casualties — such as Zachary McCaffrey, a 23-year-old senior political-science student at the University of Central Florida.

McCaffrey used to take a full course load at UCF. But tuition costs have increased so much that he has had to work more and go to school less.

A year ago he took four classes and worked three days a week. Today he's taking two classes and works five days a week as a food runner at a restaurant near the theme parks.

The rising cost of an education forced him to delay graduation.

"When you're only making minimum wage and still paying rent, car insurance and gas ... it brings you to some tough decisions you have to make," he said.

Since the 2007-08 school year, tuition at UCF has jumped 40 percent for an undergraduate, in-state student — from $73.71 per credit hour to $103.32.

And look for another big increase next year, with UCF expected to raise tuition by the maximum 15 percent.

McCaffrey is trying to pay for his education as he goes and minimize the amount of debt he takes on.

Becky Merola, a 21-year-old advertising and public-relations senior, knows all too much about the perils of student debt.

Merola estimates she has racked up more than $10,000 in student loans since she transferred to UCF less than two years ago from a community college.

She helped organize a demonstration on campus last week to show how many students will be saddled with debt when they leave UCF. One by one, 115 students wrote their debt loads on a large board outside the student union.

Merola's group, the Student Labor Action Project, considered it a happy coincidence that the demonstration was the same day as UCF President John Hitt's 20th-anniversary party, and students and faculty entering the union for the celebration couldn't help but notice.

As the day wore on, some of the amounts were staggering. One student wrote $100,000. The grand total at the end of the demonstration was $2.3 million.

"They're raising the cost of education, but they don't raise the value of the education," Merola said.

And that's the rub. University administrators and politicians say Florida tuition rates are so far below the national average that students — and we parents saving for a future student's education — can only expect prices to rise.

The problem is that the cutting is so severe that it's tough for any of them to argue with a straight face that we will be getting more for our money.

Classes are bigger. Academic programs are getting cut. And this year's raiding of universities' cash reserves means UCF will be out about $52 million that could have been used to recruit faculty, enhance programs and even pay for building repairs in case a major hurricane blows through.

That's going to mean big trouble when it comes to wooing and keeping faculty and top students — students who might have stayed in Florida when it was a bargain, but now are looking elsewhere.

Florida needs all the brain power it can get. Universities are one of the best ways to attract the brightest minds. It's good for business and helps an ailing economy.

McCaffrey, who now expects to graduate this summer amid long hours waiting tables, might be one student who leaves.

"Heck, I could go to grad school out of state," he said.

bkassab@tribune.com or 407-420-5448

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-beth-kassab-higher-education-030812-20120307,0,5806956.column