Editor,
I’m writing the nearly identical letter to one I wrote several years ago when a previous University president, upon announcing a tuition increase, earnestly commented that ”UNM really is a bargain — cheaper than most of its comparable state universities.”
The problem with this statement, repeated over and over again by university administrators, is that New Mexico was, and still is, one of the poorest states in the union with high unemployment levels, even in good times.
Furthermore, most of our employed citizens earn less for comparable jobs than their peers in other states.
UNM is a bargain — for out-of-state students. For native New Mexicans, the percentage of their income required to pay tuition is the same, or sometimes higher, than that percentage students pay elsewhere. By comparing salary levels to tuition levels in any given state, a far different picture emerges than the one painted by the University president.
I guess it’s still true that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it.
Sharon Karpinski
UNM Student
