Today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” so don’t be offended when your classmate’s parrot drops a nice white bundle of bird dung on your Vidal Sassoon coif. While this may make you exclaim, “Aaarrr!” there could be worse reasons to let out Smee’s favorite phrase. It could be that your first exam is approaching and you can’t even remember how to study after the summer, or perhaps your fantasy team almost lost because the Redskins’ offense is inept (Peyton saved me this week). Whatever your current worry may be, chances are more pressing issues could be marinating in the back of your mind.
For many students, a friendly invoice from the office of the bursar each semester can instantly send a wave of stress through one’s body. So when I saw, “Maryland gets ‘F’ grade for affordability for second time” (Sept. 15), one thing came to my mind – “DUH!” I came to Maryland for two and a half reasons: 1. Because Maryland has a highly ranked business school. That really turned out well; now I’m a proud student of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. 1 and a half. Sports teams. We had just gone to the Orange Bowl and won the men’s basketball national championship the spring before I came to Maryland. Two 5-and-6 seasons and a couple of early exits from the NIT later, I’m left with my final, most important reason: “the green;” and I’m not talking about how highly we rank as a counterculture school.
I’m talking about money. While this university may be “the best deal in education” according to Gov. Robert Ehrlich, the fact is this university is expensive, whether you’re an out-of-state student or not. I came to Maryland because it made the most sense for me financially. While other, marginally cheaper alternatives included Frostburg and Salisbury State, the extra cost of attending my home state’s flagship university was small enough to make College Park my best option.
When I first stepped into LaPlata Hall my first semester here in the spring of 2003, in-state tuition was a reasonable $2,300 semester. This semester, tuition came in at $3,953, a 72 percent increase from when I began here. Sure, out-of-state students are envious, but a 72 percent increase in such a large part of one’s expenditure is enough to make even the loosest accountant cringe. One thing is for sure – neither my parents’ or my own wage rate increased 72 percent since 2003, so tuition increases are not a popular subject at the dinner table each night.
As a result of these increases, as well as the increased cost of housing in the area, I moved back home in fall 2004 in order to prevent putting my future self into more student loan debt; $30,000 was enough for me. With the rising fuel costs, and my 75-mile daily roundtrip commute, I just couldn’t win. Without further complaining, the fact remains that I will at some point need to repay these loans, debts that can haunt a person as long as some mortgages.
Probably the best argument I, as an in-state student, have against rising tuition costs is the fact that each year, I pay thousands of dollars in federal and state taxes. When I pay these taxes, I expect my hard-earned Home Depot dollars to go to parts of public expenditure that I care about; namely higher education. The millions of dollars Ehrlich funneled into the University System earlier this year was not enough to balance out the 72 percent increase in tuition my parents faced. The ‘F’ Maryland earned as a unaffordable state is absolutely correct and deserved. A state institution, even if it is trying to improve its national ranking, should not be out of reach due to financial reasons for anyone. Yet, this the road Maryland higher education is leading directly to.
But alas, though this is my final semester here at Maryland, one thing is for sure: Many of you still have reason to yell, “Aaarr!” more than once a year.
Andrew Appler is The Diamondback’s deputy opinion editor. He can be reached at opinion@dbk.umd.edu.
