The SGA voted to oppose the proposed tuition increase for certain laboratory science and engineering programs last night, with several legislators calling the hike an unfair burden on students in those fields.

The Board of Regents, the University System of Maryland’s 17-member governing board, is discussing the proposal submitted by Provost Ann Wylie about whether to raise tuition for certain science and engineering students – a hike some university officials said may be necessary in order to hire more faculty members and accept more students into the costly programs.

However, several Student Government Association members voiced concern that an increase in tuition may deter students from coming to the university or pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees – known in academia as STEM – especially with a proposed three percent in-state tuition hike next year.

“I think it’s in extremely poor taste for the administration to make it even harder for students to complete college when we’re already facing this onslaught of increases,” computer, mathematical and natural sciences legislator David Lieb said.

Lieb and the SGA Vice President for Academic Affairs Jamil Scott pledged to find alternative means to funding these programs, such as obtaining grants for science and engineering programs.

To ease the financial hit, a portion of the revenue generated from the hike would go toward financial aid for STEM students, and officials would eliminate the course fees for the affected majors, according to Wylie. She did not say which majors may be impacted or how much tuition could increase.

“Many universities have such differential tuition already, and we have no knowledge that it has deterred a significant number of students,” Wylie wrote in an email. “Of course, we would want to be very careful in ensuring that needy students are held harmless.”

University President Wallace Loh said while he understands student opposition, the university has not received increases in state funding in about four years, which makes it more and more difficult for officials to meet the growing demand for students in the sciences.

“You can only continue on this path for so long before the quality starts declining. … It will not happen on my watch,” Loh said. “If we have had no increases for four years, and whatever increases we have from tuition go to inflation costs, how are we going to create more labs, more faculty members, in engineering? And the demand is huge.”

At last night’s meeting, arts and humanities legislator Mace Phillips said the proposed hike is fair, as the science and engineering fields are often those that require the most money to sustain. He also noted that students in other fields often do not receive as much funding.

“[The behavioral and social sciences college] is obviously the largest college on [the] campus, but it has the lowest per capita funding per student,” Phillips said. “While it sucks to have to pay more money because of your major, it also sucks to see less money because of your major.”

SGA President Kaiyi Xie, a senior engineering major, agreed.

“I’d say that the legislators who are not from fields as hard as STEM may be doing their constituents a disservice by accepting this,” Xie said.

However, other legislators from arts and humanities and behavioral and social sciences opposed the hike, saying keeping STEM programs at the university strong and accessible to students benefits the university as a whole.

“This bill is not about the disparity between colleges,” Ellicott Community legislator Joseph Landgraf said. “I think it’s really a disservice to give the administration a free pass to raise tuition on anybody.”

Several science and engineering majors said they have a long road of school to pay for ahead.

“I don’t have a massive amount of money. I plan to go to medical school, and I have siblings, too,” freshman general biology major Nuriya Gadiwalla said. “In this economy, I don’t think it’s fair to raise tuition on half the campus because we happen to be in a more expensive major.”

Senior staff writer Rebecca Lurye contributed to this report.

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