UMass’ stop-gap tuition freeze
The University of Massachusetts board of trustees went along with President’s Marty Meehan’s recommendation not to raise tuition for in-state students.
However, Medical School and out-of-state students at the Amherst Campus will see a 1.5% increase. Also at its Wednesday meeting, trustees agreed to freeze tuition for out-of-state students at the Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell campuses.
For in-state undergraduates, tuition will range from $13,833 in Dartmouth to $15,791 at the flagship Amherst campus, according to figures provided by the system. Affected non-residents’ tuition will rise by $537, while room and board plans will face a $266 increase.
This marks the UMass system’s second straight tuition freeze for Massachusetts students. The earlier than usual tuition decision — trustees traditionally make that call in June — at least gives clarity to the financial picture students face.
It’s also an acknowledgement of the disruption in the university system’s education and social experience caused by this pandemic.
But the one trustee actually directly impacted by these decisions, student member Timothy Scalona, cast the only dissenting vote.
While recognizing that the university faces financial challenges arising from the COVID-19 crisis, he said raising out-of-state tuition at the same time UMass receives pandemic-related federal aid was “not something that I feel like I can vote for, as a student representative.”
That sentiment was shared by other UMass Amherst students, including members of the Debt-Free Future Campaign, who urged trustees to reject any increases.
“With the average UMass Amherst student graduating with $32,000 of debt and 25% of the student population facing food insecurity, we cannot allow tuition and fees to rise again,” the campaign said. That debt load’s the inconvenient truth that should drive the financial decisions of both trustees and students. But any tuition freeze seems more like a Band-Aid reaction to a more systemic problem of affordability that these piecemeal solutions can’t mask. And given the lessons learned from a year of on-and-off campus instruction, is it worth assuming that financial burden for a college education at UMass — or virtually any other institution of higher learning? In this case, that’s the $32,000 question — one with no pat answer.