Fenoune Sainvil-Jean is taking three classes this summer. Every day after school, she rushes to her 30-hour-a-week job as a bank teller before heading home to her 9-year-old daughter Kristine, who has spent the afternoon in after-school care.
The 28-year-old junior has just found out that she’ll be paying 8.5 percent more tuition this fall.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” Sainvil-Jean says. “I was working full time, but I cut back because of school. Now I’ll have to take a couple of extra hours and cut back in other areas to make up the difference.”
Sainvil-Jean isn’t alone.
All FAU students will be paying more in the 2003-2004 school year, due to a recent decision by the Board of Trustees to raise tuition by 8.5 percent for Florida undergraduate students and 15 percent for graduates and out-of-state undergrads. That means next month most of us will be paying about $98 per credit hour, up from $92 last year.
“Last spring I could only afford to take three classes, and this fall I’m taking four,” Sainvil-Jean says. “It’s taking longer for me to graduate because I can only do a little at a time. Now, with this increase, it’s going to take even longer.”
On June 24, the Board adopted a $411.9 million budget for the upcoming year, claiming it had to raise tuition because the state of Florida cut FAU’s funding by $3 million. Last year, the state cut $7 million.
Taking a $10 million loss over a period of just two years was more than FAU could handle, Student Government President and Trustee Ancel Pratt III says. Pratt explains that while no one in particular is to blame, there were three main causes of the increase: Florida voters, the Florida legislature, and FAU administration.
“At the last election, the citizens of Florida voted for three or four constitutional amendments that the state now has to pay for, and that takes away from education funding. As for the legislature, education just isn’t a high priority for them.
“Then administration was told funding was getting cut, and they thought, ‘What exactly are we supposed to do?’ Legislature told them, ‘We’re not going to give you as much money, but we’ll allow you to increase your tuition,’ so FAU had to decide whether to take the loss and cut back programs, or raise tuition.”
FAU President Frank Brogan blames Florida’s funding system. “The state funding formula is old. It was developed to fund UF and Florida State, which were the two large and growing universities for many years,” Brogan says. “They were located in rural areas and served a very traditional, full-time student population.
“What’s happened is the state and university populations have changed dramatically. I consider FAU to be the poster child of why this formula no longer works. At FAU, about 48 percent of the students are full-time and 52 percent are part-time. So immediately the amount of money that we receive is less because the formula is awarding full-time students.”
Trustee and FAU math professor Dr. Fred Hoffman says he regretfully voted in favor of the tuition increase.
“It doesn’t make anybody happy. I’m sorry we were forced to do this but the only way we can come close to having the courses out there that students need and the instructors to teach them well is with money, and the only way legislature allowed us to make that money was through raising tuition.”
The 8.5 percent increase implemented by the Board will provide FAU with an extra $3.5 million, just enough to cover the university’s losses. The additional 6.5 percent increase allotted to graduate and out-of-state students gives FAU another $1 million, and was created to help raise faculty members’ salaries.
Brogan says the added funds will allow FAU to hire new instructors, as well.
“The extra tuition money will go to increases in salary for faculty and staff and toward adding the new faculty members that we need to make sure we’re offering enough sections so people can graduate on time,” Brogan says.
Hoffman wasn’t completely sold on this idea, however.
“I’m not happy voting for a 15 percent increase in tuition when students are paying for the services of poorly paid faculty, who are only getting a 2 or 3 percent raise,” Hoffman says. “You’re paying too much for a product that isn’t valued very highly.”
Brogan admits that it was a difficult decision to raise tuition, but a necessary one. “Had we not been able to do this,” Brogan says, “we were having to look at closing sections of course work, dramatically rolling back the summer term, maybe cutting the university library hours, and so on.”
Many students figured that the reason behind the tuition increase was campus construction or the addition of more programs. However, Pratt says the increase won’t do much for FAU except help it break even after its budget cuts.
“We’re just keeping what we have – the amount of classes that we have open, the buildings that are open,” Pratt says. “[The increase] wasn’t to see anything new, just secure what we’ve got. Besides, the US average for tuition increases is 25 percent, so we’re completely below that.”
Still, FAU is one of the most expensive schools in Florida. The total cost per credit hour for an in-state undergrad is about six dollars more than at the University of Florida, one of Florida’s top-rated schools. The reason for the cost difference is that FAU students are charged higher fees. While FAU and UF’s general education fee will be the same this fall ($63.41 per credit hour for undergrads), FAU’s non-resident fees, activity and service fees and athletic fees are higher.
“I really thought it would be more expensive going to UF than FAU,” Sainvil-Jean says. “It’s not fair that the education there is supposed to be better but we’re paying more here. We should be getting a better education for our money. Hiring better teachers is good, but nobody wants to pay extra. FAU should have great teachers anyway.”
The difference in the costs of attendance at FAU and UF is directly related to the state funding formula, Brogan contends.
“UF has a primary market of full-time students, so the formula impacts them very differently,” he says. “It rewards them, while it hurts us because we have a primary market of part-time students. Until the formula is changed, the Florida Atlantic University’s of the world will always be in a very difficult and non-competitive position.”
Former FAU President Anthony Catanese believed there was a good reason FAU students pay more.
“You get more at FAU,” Catanese told the UP last year. “We include more things than other state universities do in the fees.
“For example, if you want to go to athletic contests, at other schools, you have to buy your tickets. And of course, students get all tickets free here – for football, basketball, baseball — it’s all free.”
But for many students, that’s not good enough. They work full-time just to pay for their classes, and usually don’t have time to enjoy all those free athletic contests.
“I work 40 hours a week to pay for school,” says senior Selina Terrelonge. “Because of this increase, I will either have to work four more hours a week plus 15 to 18 hours of classes or I will have to take out another loan. I already have two.”
Unfortunately for working students, Hoffman says we can probably expect more increases in the future.
“The tuition will go up every year until legislation changes,” he says. “We don’t have an election this year, so you’re going to have the same people in Tallahassee who made us increase tuition this year, and I don’t think they’re going to consider it advantageous to say, ‘We made it possible for the universities not to raise their tuition.’
“But sometimes the legislature gets the attitude where they say they won’t let universities raise tuition because they consider it a tax on students, so that could happen.”
Sainvil-Jean hopes this will be the case.
“I totally disagree with them raising the price,” Sainvil-Jean says. “If it keeps going up, some people won’t be able to afford to go to school.”
And Sainvil-Jean may be one of them.
Estimated cost of attendance at FAU and UF per credit hour:(Sources: FAU and UF official websites)
FAU 2002-2003In-state undergraduate: $92.88In-state graduate: $186.56Out-of-state undergraduate: $410.47Out-of-state graduate: $678.15
UF 2002-2003In-state undergraduate: $86.03In-state graduate: $179.35Out-of-state undergraduate: $401.54Out-of-state graduate: $667.92
FAU 2003-2004In-state undergraduate: $98.09In-state graduate: $209.82 Out-of-state undergraduate: 465.17Out-of-state graduate: 775.15
UF 2003-2004In-state undergraduate: $92.68In-state graduate: $205.26Out-of-state undergraduate: $460.28Out-of-state graduate: $774.53
