Editor,
First, I would like to thank you for your coverage of the upcoming Budget Summit in Monday's Daily Lobo, and the proposed tuition hike of at least 5.3 percent.
I, for one, am weary from the numerous tuition increases that occur year after year. I know more than one student who has had to drop out of classes at UNM in order to work and save money, as the result of the increase of the 12 percent in 2004, and the 9.9 percent increase just last year.
I have been fortunate to be on a scholarship that has, until now, helped cover the cost of these tuition hikes. However, this scholarship is limited to cover only four years of college, and as I enter my fifth and final year of undergraduate study this fall, I wonder if I will also be forced to take a year off.
I understand that this increase will cover, among other things, the growing expenses that the libraries are faced with, along with increasing utility costs. I agree that these are important costs which need to be covered.
However, I find it hard to understand how the regents could give a severance package to President Caldera of $720,000, without any explanation to the students, and yet they have to increase tuition in order to buy books and pay the light bill.
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I, too, have books to buy and bills to pay, and I can't just ordain a raise any time I come up short because of other expenses, like tuition hikes. And although I generally abstain from throwing money at my friends, if I did, I would make sure I had enough left over to pay my own bills without asking someone else to cover the difference.
In short, I don't think students should foot the bill for the regents' payoffs. And I will be at the Budget Summit on Friday to tell them so. I hope other students will be there also.
Jessica Miles
UNM student
