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.
