Two state legislators have filed a bill that would freeze tuition and mandatory fees at Tennessee’s public universities until the 2018-2019 school year.
The bill would also require all members of the Tennessee Board of Regents to unanimously vote for any increase that was greater than two percent the consumer price index.
Freshmen entering college in 2018 would not see their tuition or fees raised unless they dropped below a full-time student at a Tennessee public university.
The tuition-freeze program would allow these freshmen to pay the same rate for tuition all four years. They would only have one opportunity to utilize the tuition-freeze program. If the student drops below full-time status or is no longer enrolled as a student at a state college or university, that student will never be eligible for the tuition-freeze program again.
The "Tuition Stability Act,” filed by state Sen. Dolores Gresham, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and Rep. Martin Daniel, seeks to control the rapid rate at which tuition is increasing at Tennessee’s state colleges and universities.
“College tuition is out of control in Tennessee, and everyone knows it,” Gresham said in a press release issued by her press secretary Darlene Schlicher. “Any college student or their family who attended a Tennessee college or university during the last decade understands all too well the problem this bill addresses. If the present rate of tuition increases were to continue, an affordable college education would soon be out of reach for all but the most affluent Tennesseans.”
The proposed bill would affect fees such as maintenance fees, course fees, program service fees, student activity fees, registration fees and any other fee a student is required to pay in order to attend a state college or university.
However, fees like late registration fees, returned check fees, parking fines, library fines or any other fee that could be avoided by the student would not be affected.
In 2014 the University of Memphis approved a 3.7 percent increase in tuition for the 2015-2016 school year, causing tuition to rise to $7,320 per year with mandatory fees of $1,583. Freshman nursing major Terica Jones is one of the students who noticed the increase when it was time to pay her tuition.
“It’s not fair for students to have to pay so much money to build new buildings,” Jones said. “I would only consider paying a tuition increase to help renovate existing buildings on campus because some of them don’t have proper air conditioning or heat.”
While some students agree that tuition should never increase for any reason, others think there are some instances where a tuition increase is acceptable. Psychology senior Katie Brick is one of them.
“A tuition increase is never good for students,” Brick said. “If the increase was something that would be beneficial to students and bring positive attention to the school, I think that would be acceptable.”
