13 percent tuition increase for UNF

[Tamara-B]

President  John Delaney firmly stands by this decision according to a mass email I received this morning and First Coast News.

Things sure are changing, such as the new, larger cafe and fitness center. Heck, even laundry went up from $1.00 to $1.25 for wash and $0.75 to $1.00 for dry.

First-year students are now required to live on campus

Good thing it's my senior year

[Tacachale]

It always sucks when tuition goes up, especially when it's fairly dramatic. In this case the increase (it's actually tuition differential; not all majors will see an increase in tuition) came about because the state has (again) slashed the universities' budgets. I spoke here earlier about the effect it would have; when cuts happen, schools must either recover the cost somehow, or slash services. 

UNF is one of the very few universities in Florida that hasn't had to cut majors and lay people off due to budget cuts. Most of the other schools have done that and increased their tuition. Also, FWIW the new buildings are not paid for by tuition; the money comes from elsewhere and can't go into the general budget.

On top of the state reducing its support, other factors are driving the cost of college up. More and more financial aid money is being dumped into for-profit diploma mills; when there's less to go around to real schools and demand continues to grow, it has a hugely adverse affect on everyone involved.

If we want to end these tuition increases we need to get the state to stop cutting the budget for higher ed and do something about the rising costs of college.

[simms3]

On top of the state reducing its support, other factors are driving the cost of college up. More and more financial aid money is being dumped into for-profit diploma mills; when there's less to go around to real schools and demand continues to grow, it has a hugely adverse affect on everyone involved.

Love it.  Not all for-profits are equal, but nowadays many are certainly sketchy mills with false advertising and unfair means of profiting from taxpayers.

[Overstreet]

In 1969 Tuition at Purdue went from $200 to $350 per semester (21 credit hr load) .  Given the year the extra $150 was a lot of money. Seems like a 75% increase.   Housing back then cost about $900 for two semesters.  Tuition increases are not a new thing.  There were protests.  But the rise remained. 



As a side note.........When I came to Jax in the 80s. I paid $350 per class at UNF.

[CityLife]

On top of the state reducing its support, other factors are driving the cost of college up. More and more financial aid money is being dumped into for-profit diploma mills; when there's less to go around to real schools and demand continues to grow, it has a hugely adverse affect on everyone involved.

Love it.  Not all for-profits are equal, but nowadays many are certainly sketchy mills with false advertising and unfair means of profiting from taxpayers.

+1,000. We're going to look back in 5 or 10 years and wonder why the ______ there wasn't more oversight and regulation of the for-profit system. I know some will consider this elitist and it probably is, but its also right...Students at Stanford, Harvard, Duke, etc should not be paying the same interest rates on their loans as students at Everest University. For the simple reason that they are far less likely to default on their loans. We need to treat them like we do home loans. If you are a high risk student at a diploma mill, you should have to pay loan insurance (like PMI) and pay a higher interest rate.

I went to a fairly respected grad school in my field and graduated in the worst possible year in America. Yet I've paid my student loan principal down by about $15k. One of my best friends graduated from Coastal in the same year and has seen his loan principal grow by about $15k. Given the job market for lower tier law grads, he has little to no hope of paying his loans off in the next 20 years.

I know plenty of people from Coastal that are doing fantastic, but I also know some that aren't at all. And I know they've had a lawsuit for misleading students. Its pretty much the same tuition to go to FSU or UF law than it is to go to Coastal. Yet FSU and UF are both Tier 1 schools, whose grads get far better job opportunities post grad. If students at Coastal had to pay a slightly higher interest rate and loan insurance, far less would be willing to take the gamble. Which would then either force Coastal to lower their tuition or it would decrease enrollment (which is needed).

The diploma mills not only devalue degrees, but also over saturate the job markets, and increase the risk of loan default. Our government needs to get its head out of the sand, before this ruins higher education in America.

[jcjohnpaint]

It always sucks when tuition goes up, especially when it's fairly dramatic. In this case the increase (it's actually tuition differential; not all majors will see an increase in tuition) came about because the state has (again) slashed the universities' budgets. I spoke here earlier about the effect it would have; when cuts happen, schools must either recover the cost somehow, or slash services. 

UNF is one of the very few universities in Florida that hasn't had to cut majors and lay people off due to budget cuts. Most of the other schools have done that and increased their tuition. Also, FWIW the new buildings are not paid for by tuition; the money comes from elsewhere and can't go into the general budget.

On top of the state reducing its support, other factors are driving the cost of college up. More and more financial aid money is being dumped into for-profit diploma mills; when there's less to go around to real schools and demand continues to grow, it has a hugely adverse affect on everyone involved.

If we want to end these tuition increases we need to get the state to stop cutting the budget for higher ed and do something about the rising costs of college.

Very well stated... and absolutely true

[civil42806]

It always sucks when tuition goes up, especially when it's fairly dramatic. In this case the increase (it's actually tuition differential; not all majors will see an increase in tuition) came about because the state has (again) slashed the universities' budgets. I spoke here earlier about the effect it would have; when cuts happen, schools must either recover the cost somehow, or slash services. 

UNF is one of the very few universities in Florida that hasn't had to cut majors and lay people off due to budget cuts. Most of the other schools have done that and increased their tuition. Also, FWIW the new buildings are not paid for by tuition; the money comes from elsewhere and can't go into the general budget.

On top of the state reducing its support, other factors are driving the cost of college up. More and more financial aid money is being dumped into for-profit diploma mills; when there's less to go around to real schools and demand continues to grow, it has a hugely adverse affect on everyone involved.

If we want to end these tuition increases we need to get the state to stop cutting the budget for higher ed and do something about the rising costs of college.

How was the universities budget cut.  How much?

[Purplebike]

It's true that budgets have been cut. There are other factors too. For one, there are more administrators than ever before.

"Between 1975 and 2005, total spending by American higher educational institutions, stated in constant dollars, tripled, to more than $325 billion per year. Over the same period, the faculty-to-student ratio has remained fairly constant, at approximately fifteen or sixteen students per instructor. One thing that has changed, dramatically, is the administrator-per-student ratio. In 1975, colleges employed one administrator for every eighty-four students and one professional stafferâ€"admissions officers, information technology specialists, and the likeâ€"for every fifty students. By 2005, the administrator-to-student ratio had dropped to one administrator for every sixty-eight students while the ratio of professional staffers had dropped to one for every twenty-one students."

For now, I'll not declare a position on whether this is a good thing or not. It's too complex an issue to yield a quick judgment or position.

It should also be noted that around 70% of instruction these days, in higher education, is done by adjunct / contingent faculty. Adjuncts only make about 2000 per class, locally, and they do not receive benefits or health insurance. Some teach 8 classes or more a semester, to make ends meet. They often have to take this many in the fall / spring, to make up for the decreased course loads available in the summer. In other words, those increased costs are not coming from particular adjuncts!

Hope all this is useful to the topic at hand. Cheers!

A couple references / resources

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php

Benjamin Ginsberg, "The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters", (Oxford University Press, ISBN13: 9780199782444)

http://www.insidehighered.com/

[AshleyLauren]

I understand the same thing has happened in the past and tuition increase is not a new thing nor something that will ever go away. We understand that the cost of living goes up, budgets are revamped, changed or done away with altogether. One must step back, reboot, and press on the best they can. However, 13% is not a small jump when you consider what UNF students pay for.

We pay, depending on the course level and the major, somewhere from 350-500 a class. So if you take 4 classes a semester at the 500 rate that should be 2000$ for the semester, right? Pretty simple math but you're wrong. For 5 classes in Spring semester, 1-3000 level and 4-4000 level courses, I paid close to $3700 for tuition. That means I paid $1200 dollars in superfluous charges! Now, I have never walked into the school's gym, nor have I been to the cafeteria, nor have I ever used a parking garage; nevertheless, I pay for them. And yes me because I pay entirely out of pocket.

You want to expand the school and make it better, fine. However, you cannot tack on $1200 worth of extra fees and then up tuition by 13% and expect individuals to be able to stay in school.
And as if the hike in tuition was not enough. Interest rates on student loans (for the people that can get them) are outrageous, and to add insult to injury, you are sending half of the graduating student population into a country that THERE ARE NO JOBS AVAILABLE! It is truly disheartening.

Also, Tacachale, you are right. At least UNF is not cutting programs but they do cut classes. That is why UNF is title "U Never Finish" because critical classes are only offered at certain times, some of which you can only take once a year and if you don't get in tough luck. Which prolongs your chance to graduate. So while you waste a semester or two and wait your tuition inevitably goes up at least once, gas prices go up, UNF decides to build more things and add more charges to your bill for buildings 80% of her current students will never see finished or use for that matter, and then finally you get into that class, pass it and then they make some other bull shit change to your requirements and the cycle starts all over again. So in essence it is the same thing in a different package.  IT'S A VISCOUS CYCLE AND IT MUST STOP!

Like CityLife said, " Our government needs to get its head out of the sand, before this ruins higher education in America!"

Also, I think it is violently unfair that some of us strive to raise children to go against the grain, to be individuals, to major in arts rather than business, to study history rather than finance, and to care about people rather than technology. But then punish them for being different. We study just as hard, long and much as the other degrees so why are we not valued? We already know we will make less throughout our lives and we are ok with that but don't knock us before we're down.

Thus ends my rant, sorry, but passionately disgusted with this subject currently.

[officerk]

I am a college student though I do not go to UNF.  I have been affected by the rise in tuition and the government cuts.  What I have seen is a rise in the student population due to the rise in unemployment.  Many people that otherwise would not be seeking higher education are taking advantage of the money being thrown at them that encourages them not to seek employment immediately but to seek a higher education and hopefully make themselves more marketable.  I know of one case where a person is doing this simply because she is getting paid more money to go to school than she would not to.  This is a double edged sword.  It will hopefully create a better educate American populous however it is taxing the college university system with an influx of students.  Many of these students may not have what it takes to complete what they seek out to do and those are taking class seats away from those that need those seats, but who has a crystal ball to determine which student is which?.  Yet the government programs are making it lucrative for them to attempt until the money is no longer available for them.  The Universities and Colleges have to have success rates in their programs to ensure funding continues for these programs.  This is probably where the “degree mills” that were referred to come in.  Our lovely Governor has cut funding for many majors and the only way that the Universities and Colleges can continue them is to take drastic measures themselves of raising tuition.  I know that UF has closed down at least one of its “Colleges” due to this lack of funding; the student interest is not a factor.  I don’t like it.  If fact I hate it as I am a student that only qualifies for student loans or out of pocket tuition payment.  But I would rather see tuition rise than degree programs cut. 

[mtraininjax]

Where is it written that you MUST go to college? There are very good jobs available for people who do not attend college, and there is a glut of attorneys who cannot find work after racking up tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt. Its great that Obama and Romney want to keep your student debt interest low, but when you have no job, its tough to pay them off, and you cannot declare bankruptcy and eliminate student loan debt, it stays with you.

With a 13% increase in tuition, what does that do to the amount of money in Bright Futures? It will decrease the number of kids it can send to college, for sure. So get ready for a new round of complaining that there is not enough guaranteed money in the fund for people to go to college. Again, though, there are many jobs that you can get without a college degree and have a very nice life. Not everyone should go to college, the debt that they are saddled with, so early, can be devastating to their life.

[officerk]

correct. Higher education is not a "right" you have to earn it.  A person can make it without a degree.  though more and different doors open to you if you have a degree than do if you do not.  I am a late in life student I wish I'd had the ambition and abilites in my youth that I have now.  I listen to the "kids" complain about going to school. I tell them to go home, go to work and quit wasting their parents money.  There are jobs out there that will pay and be rewarding without having a degree under your belt.  But seeking a degree when you are younger is much easier than seeking it when you are older and have to do it while handling a job, family and class schedule.. Student loans are no joke. I am working while going to school and thankfully able to pay them down while I am still in school.  People that are just racking up debt indiscriminately not thinking about the end result may have a rather rude awakening when that first bill comes after graduation.

[Purplebike]

Where is it written that you MUST go to college?

...there are many jobs that you can get without a college degree and have a very nice life. Not everyone should go to college, the debt that they are saddled with, so early, can be devastating to their life.

+100!

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Despite the fact that I teach college. Okay, maybe because I teach college!

I see too many individuals in my classes even, who are bright, capable, but not at all suited for college. By "suited" I mean they are not the "sit in a chair" type. By "college", I mean the standard "sit in chair and learn". In some cases, they'd be much better off in a hands on, apprenticeship learning environment.

Too bad so many of the good trades occupations are no longer here. Don't even get me started on that! :\

I grew up around the trades. My dad, and most of the other adult figures in my early life were in the trades; they were good at it, and very fulfilled by it.

But then a lot of those jobs went away. (Sorry, I got myself going now, a couple sentences back!) Then the folks that no longer can find those jobs shop at cheap big box retailers. Then more of the trades / manufacturing jobs go away. Then more people have to shop at big box retailers. Then...

Sigh. Sorry. Kind of got off track there, didn't I.

[mtraininjax]

Page A-5 of the Times Union to all you out of work college grads or high school grads wanting to know what to do:

Thinking of a career as a truck driver? A trade school offering the CDL education and license opportunity. What better opportunity with our port growing and expanding, being able to see America from the road and move vital cargo between locations? When larger rigs are converted over to Liquefied Natural Gas, the fuel will be dirt cheap allowing drivers to keep more in their pockets, a win-win for us in Jacksonville. Still a driver can expect to make 800-1000 a week if they are on the road most of the month, but if you are single and just starting out, it is a fine living with a needed service.

[tufsu1]

the decision was made about 5 years ago that tuition at Florida universities needed to come up to the national average....the agreement allowed the schools to raise tuition by as much as 15% per year until they recahed the national average.

The extra money was supposed to be spent on reduced class sizes, new/enhanced academic programs, and better facilities...problem is the legislature has instead decided to reduce the state's share of the costs of educating students....I think its down from about 50% to 30% of the actual cost....so the tuition increases are offsetting the reduction.