For the past twenty months there has been a lot of talk about the budget cuts faced by all of the universities in Louisiana. Receiving a higher education is important to many people and because of  the fee increases some people won’t be able to afford to receive their higher education.

Southeastern has always been known as an affordable school. However, with its slashed budget, it has become harder on the university, as well as other universities in the state, to stay affordable. Having increases in both tuition and student fees means the university has to come up with ways to alter their budget so that students won’t feel the financial stress that the cuts may cause.

What will really make a difference is whether or not students will accept the fees. At the beginning of each semester of school, students pay their tuition and also their fees. In paying their tuition and fees many students aren’t quite sure what they are actually paying for in their fees. There is great range as to where these fees are distributed to. Many of these fees often don’t pertain to many students that are paying them.  Rather than the SGA senate approving the fees, it will be given over to student to vote for approval.

Students like to be able to see where their money is going and know how it is being used. Since this increase will directly affect students at Southeastern, students should have an input as to where the money is going. Getting students involved would allow for a more positive reception of the increase in fees. Being involved in this decision, students have the opportunity to voice their opinion on the subject of the fee increase by voting in the SGA spring election.

This increase is not good for students. There are many students at Southeastern who work to pay for the cost of their tuition and their ever-rising cost of living. To make things worse, the GRAD Act that was put into place last summer will allow universities raise the cost of tuition to increase by 10 percent each year for the next six years if they wanted to.

By increasing both tuition and fees, students are hit twice as hard in trying to pay for their education. The increase in tuition will be assessed to pretty much every university in the state. Since this increase is set state-wide, there isn’t much that Southeastern can change about it. But to go along with the tuition increase, the increase in fees will be assessed to students’ cost for higher education.

With the attention being brought to the proposed cost increase in student fees, there are questions as to what the fees are actually for and where they actually go. Obviously, students need to know; they’re the ones paying the fees. Students need to ask: Why are some programs getting more out of these fees than others? Why do I have to pay them? Why can’t the university raise the money on its own? How do I benefit from these fees? The administration of the university is responsible for answering these questions, and should do so soon.

The university should try finding other ways to adjust the budget that won’t affect students in a major like the proposed student fees increase will. Students should also have an opportunity to give suggestions as to how to adjust the budget so that students may not have to pay for an increase in cost. A possible alternative for increasing student fees could be cutting down on the number of fees, especially the ones that don’t affect the majority of students. In order to determine what fees are more important and that students use, there should be an opportunity for students to input their opinions. Since students are the ones paying the bill they should have that opportunity.

With having to increase the cost of student-paid fees, Southeastern may lose students and possible future students that won’t be able to afford to attend the school. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to receive a higher education. Students shouldn’t have to make the decision to not get an education in order to support themselves. They should be able to do both.