Cut waste before education

On “”Take a tuition hike”” (March 21):

I thought that tuition wasn’t supposed to keep going up after the sales tax increase that we all got bullied into voting for last year.

After the $275 increase in student fees, the proposed tuition increase is $1,775. That is over a 20 percent increase in tuition at one shot. That, combined with a probable $750 decrease in Pell Grants for next year means, for many of us, effectively a $2525 tuition increase. That is four months of rent! For those of us that are scraping by on grants and loans, this is not only unaffordable but also irresponsible.

How many talented minds are going to be stifled and forced to enter the minimum wage work force because they are being forced to choose between their education and a roof over their head?

There are plenty of places to make cuts from the budget without affecting the educational value of this school and without increasing tuition to the point that many of us are left wondering how we will pay it and rent next year. Spring Fling, dances, $3 lunches, campus clubs and Greek affiliations are all fun diversions for students, but not fundamental to a college education. Start making cuts to programs that are more related to the social experience in college than to the educational experience. Remember what, in the end, we are all here for: an education that can help propel us to the greatest heights of our abilities, not the social experience of a lifetime.

— Candice Eaton, Ecology and evolutionary biology junior