Those who lucked out with administrative jobs at the University of Massachusetts can rest easy – UMass has has agreed to increase tuition, room and board next academic year,.
As the State House News Service reported, the UMass Board of Trustees voted during their quarterly meeting on Wednesday to increase tuition for in-state undergraduates by 2.5%, and increase room and board on the Amherst campus by 4.5% and on the Dartmouth and Lowell campuses by 2.7%.
Tuition for graduate students is also going up — 2.5% for in-state graduate students at the Amherst, Boston and Lowell campuses, 3.5% for medical students at the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and 2% at UMass Law.
Of course UMass is raising prices – because they can. And while corporations who raise prices on goods and services are called out by progressive politicians for “price gouging,” you’ll find no such brickbats being hurled at this move.
After all, liberal wisdom would have it, if college costs spike, students can take out loans – and have the government forgive them.
MassGrant, the state’s primary tool for providing need-based financial aid to students, has shrunk in its impact over the past few decades in the face of tuition increases and higher student demand. In 1998, the aid covered about 80% of tuition and fees at public universities. Today, it covers only 8% of tuition and fees for UMass students and 11% for state university students, according to a report from The Hildreth Institute.
State and even federal aid to students can’t keep up with soaring prices.
Gov. Maura Healey recommended a $93 million expansion of the MassGrant Plus scholarship program, for low-income, in-state undergraduates. This increase, the largest proposed in the program’s history, would expand the scholarship to part-time students and cover additional direct costs of attendance such as fees, books and supplies. The Healey administration estimates the $93 million would provide 33,000 students with assistance.
UMass could also make education more affordable for students by trimming some of its administration and lofty salaries instead of raising tuition and fees. The Herald’s annual database of UMass salaries has revealed administrative salaries on par with C-suite executives.
That’s a key reason college costs – at UMass and around the country – are rising.
For public higher education, the Delta Cost Project, a research institution focused on American higher education, notes the rise is rooted in increases in spending on administration and student support services alongside changes in government funding, according to a 2015 report by the Pioneer Institute.
As the Huffington Post reported, the number of non-academic administrative and professional employees in higher education institutions has more than doubled over the last 25 years, outpacing student population growth.
While the state scrambles to bolster MassGrant, the elephant in the room remains unaddressed: If you want to help more students afford a college education, make college more affordable.
