Another Student Charge Increase on the Way

A UMass Board of Trustees committee last week recommended to the full board that mandatory in-state undergrad student charges be increased system-wide by about 2 percent, to keep in line with the rate of inflation.

UMass Boston is expected to receive a 2.2 percent increase, or $172 for a total of $8,024.

“It pains us to keep having these discussions about raising fees,” Committee Chair Edward Dubilo, who is also the senior vice president and financial consultant of Salomon, Smith, and Barney, adding that the university is going through an economic downturn. The increases of 2003, totaling $1,750, offset one-third of the budget cuts.

The charge increases marked a return to the policy of the early 90s, used to avoid large increases. In the mid-90s, the university went further and cut or kept fees level.

“This is a step back to a stabilized policy,” said UMass spokesman John Hoey, pointing to private universities, which currently cost more than double what UMass does.

Portions of the fee increases will be directed to financial aid, according to the press release.

Transatlantic Tuan Pham

Student Senate President Tuan Pham resigned last December to spend a semester at Oxford University in England. Now, he’s turned foreign correspondent, describing the British life in an impromptu online interview.

“Oxford is a beautiful place,” he wrote, calling it historic and intellectually intimidating. Pham has taken an interest in the Oxford Union Debating Society and, of course, the student government there.

Pham reports that current issues for British students are “top-up fees,” their version of American tuition. British students pay very little in tuition, says Pham, and Prime Minister Tony Blair is proposing a maximum of three thousand pounds, or roughly, $5,400 US.

“It’s too funny,” says Pham. “They’re crying over three thousand pounds.”