Illustration by Arnulfo Bermudez

The massive tuition increases approved unanimously last week by the Arizona Board of Regents were probably inevitable given Arizona's dismal budget picture and the cuts facing all three state universities. As President Likins and other administrative figures have argued, steeply increasing tuition now may well end up reducing the necessity of future drastic rate hikes in the future. UA needs money. Student funds are ÷ or appear to be ÷ one of only a very few surefire avenues to obtain it. All told, the logic behind last week's increases is hard to argue with.

It's likewise difficult to deny, however, that these considerable tuition hikes present the UA's student population with a host of difficulties. The decisions and compromises required by the cuts won't be the same for all students, of course. Some undergrads, like Jordan Miller, an undeclared freshman quizzed by Arizona Daily Wildcat reporters on Monday about the increase, will scarcely feel its impact, instead passing the bill on to parents who can easily afford it. And while the rate hikes will doubtless create financial hardship for other students and their parents, the new tuition plan contributes $20 million in money for needy students, adding another thread to the thick financial cocoon already woven around undergraduates by work-study funds, Pell grants, and family PLUS loans.

Graduate students, however, are ineligible for the new financial aid dollars, just as they are ineligible for Pell grants or PLUS loans.

For the UA's vitally important graduate population, then, the impact of the tuition increase will be far grimmer. Take a look at the figures published in March 7 Wildcat: While the tuition arrangement imposes the same rate hike on in-state grads that it does on out-of-state undergraduates, this $1,250 constitutes a whopping 49.8 percent increase in the financial burden graduate students must shoulder. Everyone attending UA next year will pay considerably more for their education. For in-state graduate students, however, the Board of Regents has just raised tuition costs by more than half.

Phil Leckman

Is it any wonder that many cash-strapped grads are considering putting their educations on hold or dropping out completely?

To illustrate the depth of the problem, let's consider for a moment the case of one hypothetical graduate student in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. This graduate student ÷ just for fun, we'll call him, oh, "Bill Eckman" ÷ works half time as a research assistant, earning himself, as is common, an out-of-state tuition waiver along with the job. When combined with another campus job he holds, Bill's assistantships add up to just under 30 hours per week, the most UA allows him to work as a full-time student.

In this respect, Bill has it pretty good ÷ although the amount of time he spends at work makes accommodating a full graduate class load a lot more difficult, Bill's jobs do provide a bit of financial security. And compared to students in many other programs, he is relatively well compensated. All the same, though, Bill's entire take-home pay amounts to just about what he'd make working full-time at a minimum-wage job, just barely enough to cover tuition, rent, and bills.

And that's just this semester. Next year, things will be far trickier. Both President Likins and Graduate and Professional Student Council President Pete Morris say they're "confident" that funding to protect research assistants will somehow materialize. But the administration's proposal that the money to do this should come from the professors and programs that fund these research positions sounds pretty dubious in light of the university's recent round of across-the-board budget cuts, and suggests the whole idea is still little more than wishful thinking. While teaching assistants have received firmer assurances of additional support from the administration, this funding is likewise still only a promise.

Skeptics may well ask why cash-strapped grads don't simply take out more loans. Many graduate students, of course, already have substantial loan packages. Many more are still saddled with considerable debt from their undergraduate years. And, unlike many undergraduates, most graduate students, especially those in Ph.D. programs, usually have no assurances that their long, hard trek through school will reap financial rewards. Grads in highly specialized fields of study face challenging job markets even in the best economic times ÷ for most of them, the potential payoff is intellectual, not monetary.

Faced with an uncertain economy and, starting next year, a dramatically more expensive education, all but the most dedicated graduate students will see little wisdom in shouldering more loans.

It is all but certain that many will see little choice but to drop out, and this is a loss UA can ill afford.

Phil Leckman is an anthropology graduate student. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.