Tuition will remain the same. But at what cost to the students?

After watching pieces of our University disappear this year – like athletics teams, such as tennis and men’s soccer-and departmental budgets being addressed with a hatchet and not a scalpel, The Chart is beginning to wonder if capping tuition is a good idea.

We know that the Board of Governors really had no choice this year. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon offered to support keeping institutions’ allocations flat in exchange for such a move. Other schools had already fallen into line, and Southern’s hand was forced. Additionally, last year’s Senate Bill 389 limits the amount institutions can up the students’ bills.

But this may not be the long-term solution. Federal stimulus funds are a one-time shot. What happens next year? And the year after that?

We are already running a bare bones University with money problems. Are we really going to get a “quality education” at an institution that’s struggling financially and is unable or unwilling to raise tuition?

It’s understandable that Nixon proposed this compromise. It is politically expedient. But is it gong to hurt higher education down the line?

Right now, we’re going to the least expensive university in Missouri. Which is why many of us came here. But we don’t mind paying more for value.

It was mentioned at the Board of Governors meeting that Southern had about two years before the cap on tuition would become a real problem. We suggest it already is.

Administrators here and elsewhere need to be ready to stand up to those who hold politics more dear than our educations.

We hope the University has plans for after the Nixon deal runs its course.