Auburn University and Auburn University at Montgomery students can expect a rise in tuition and housing fall of 2024
By: Penton McNider
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Prices across the U.S. can be seen on the rise recently from gasoline to eggs; with inflation rates reaching the highest seen since the 1980s. According to Rob Wile, a business reporter for NBC News, the consumer price index is continuously trending upward. Wile explains this trend upwards is related to COVID-19 pandemic and it will likely be a long time before we see pre-pandemic prices.
While some prices are expected to take some time to recover from the pandemic, college students are returning to campuses in pre-pandemic fashion. However, students at Auburn University and Auburn University at Montgomery are going to have to adjust their budget for more than just groceries. Kelli Shomaker, Auburn’s Board of Trustee’s Chief Financial Officer, explained to the board that both universities will have a tuition increase due to construction, labor and inflation. Reporting on the increase Lauren Johnson, with Opelika-Auburn News explains that this increase is only 3%.
This sounds like a small increase, but Johnson provides a breakdown of how this will affect both Auburn and AUM. At Auburn resident undergraduates will pay $345 extra and at AUM they will pay an additional $330 per year. When Isabelle Brooms, 21, a senior pre-law student at Auburn, was asked how she felt about the rise in tuition she said, “I wish they would’ve made it a student body decision versus them just doing it anyways.”
Brooms goes on to explain that she doesn’t think it’s fair for AUM to be receiving an increase just because Auburn is going up on their tuition. AUM is part of the increase due to the university being governed by the Auburn Board of Trustees. When Brooms was asked if she felt the increase would deter potential new students from attending the university, she said, “I don’t think that it will turn away new students, but if you’re like me and paying for college on your own, then it might make it harder for some new students to find a way to afford it.”
This increase is reminiscent of another university that made headlines for increasing its tuition as well. The University of West Virginia made headlines, apart from their $7 million in staff cuts, because they increased tuition by 3%. University President Gorden Gee is quoted by The Associated Press News saying this increase is due to inflation; the same reason Shomaker accredits these two universities seeing an increase.
If the price of everything is so high in today’s economy should schools continue expanding at the cost of the students? A public university, or any university, should never become something that is unobtainable for people to attend. So, students should be left wondering if their school has the option to expand; what that will end up costing them and their student body. The governing board should first receive students’ input on increasing tuition before making the final decision. After all, without the students the universities would be nothing more than buildings, and why would they want to continue expanding if no students could afford to attend?