Tuition increase
CU expects that Gov. Bill Ritter will allow campus to raise tuition by 9 percent next year, according to CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard.
In-state students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences currently pay $7,932 a year for tuition according to the CUConnect Web site. A 9 percent increase in tuition cost would be approximately $714.
Hilliard said that it is too early in the year for any decisions about tuition to be made.
“The Board of Regents makes decisions about tuition, with input from student government,” Hilliard said. “Tuition for the next year is usually decided in spring semester.”
Some CU students say they feel that by raising tuition, CU will lose diversity.
Kaitlyn Merriman, a 20-year-old junior communication major, said she thinks raising tuition will force lower income families out of CU.
“I know I have to work to afford school, and I’m not alone,” Merriman said. “CU is already extremely expensive for middle class people.”
Hilliard stressed that if tuition is increased, CU will also work to increase financial aid.
“CU has a tradition of increasing financial aid when tuition is increased,” Hilliard said. “The strategy is always to keep financial aid proportional with tuition.”
Christine Zucchini, a 19-year-old sophomore integrative physiology major, said she is unsure how CU could avoid raising tuition in the current economy.
“I don’t want a raise in tuition but I’m having a hard time seeing ways that CU could avoid one,” Zucchini said. “I just don’t know how it could be avoided.”
Hilliard said that CU is looking at potential ways to avoid raising tuition.
“A lot of things could happen by spring semester,” Hilliard said. “Right now it’s just too early to tell.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lindsay Mullineaux at Lindsay.mullineaux@colorado.edu.
