Floyd sees student opposition at forums
Although parents are interested in the idea, three student governments are opposed.
Published Sept. 27, 2005
UM system President Elson Floyd will finish his two-month-long tour of the state on Oct. 5 in St. Louis, having gathered Missouri residents' opinions on locked-rate tuition, but will not likely be ready to take a position on the policy at the Board of Curators' meeting the next day.
"Floyd has received widely varied opinions on this issue and they're all being taken into account," UM system spokesman Joe Moore said.
Moore said Floyd would not be ready to state his position on the issue by the UM system Board of Curators meeting Oct. 6.
Moore said parents of UM system students appear fond of the tuition freeze plan for its security and consistency.
"Knowing what they have to pay for the next four years would be a luxury for their budgeting," Moore said.
The student governments at MU and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, however, have opposed the policy. Students at the University of Missouri-Rolla have also expressed reservations, Moore said.
Marcus Leach, the president of the UMKC Student Government Association, said the proposal does not address the needs of part-time students.
"It completely ignores non-traditional students who frequently take less than 12 credit hours per semester, that would be asked to re-lock every year at a massively increased amount," Leach said.
When Floyd visited the UMKC campus on Sept. 8, Leach said that the majority of students were opposed to the measure.
"The atmosphere was generally against this proposal as it currently stands," Leach said. "The audience felt other, less risky, avenues of tuition remodeling are available."
MU student leaders, including Missouri Students Association President Tony Luetkemeyer, said they also have opposed locking tuition rates because it would place an undue burden on freshman.
Floyd visited the University of Missouri-Rolla on Aug. 25. Moore said that during the meeting, students expressed concerns that engineering students who enter into co-op programs, which allow students to work in their field for credit but often extend their time at the university past four years, would be adversely affected by locked-rate tuition.
UMR Student Council President Jeremiah King did not return calls Monday seeking comment.
Leaders from the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, student lobbying group for the UM system, also have said they oppose the policy.
Students are worried that if higher education funds were not maintained by the legislature, incoming freshman would pay the difference between the state's commitment to higher, Moore said.
Moore said students worry that if higher education were not properly funded, incoming freshman would pay the difference between the state's commitment to higher education and university costs.
Students' doubts might be attributed to states cutting school budgets throughout the past several years, Moore said.
"People more familiar with state government have questioned how we can guarantee that our state appropriations will be adequate to guarantee tuition," Moore said.
Rep. Carl Bearden, R-St. Joseph, and Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia, said the legislature would work to get higher education funding to levels needed to sustain locked-rate tuition.
"If properly instituted it would give both students and parents a great deal more certainty about the cost of their college education," Robb said.
Bearden, who said he believed that locked-tuition proposals deserved further discussion, said that one harmful aspect of the proposal was that locked rates fail to provide encouragement for universities to operate efficiently.
"Freezing tuition rates do not provide institutions with any incentive to become more efficient," he said.