terrapinsanity.com

A campus starved for operating funds but even more desperate to maintain advertising hype just managed to get a little bit of the best of both worlds: Mandatory student fees will go through the roof next year, in order to cover operating expenses normally carried by the state. But officials can still advertise “no tuition increase!”

As reported in the Diamondback, a key committee has just given the green light to President Mote for a classic administrative shakedown. The mandatory fees for undergraduates will go up over $200 (put that in perspective, this places each semester bill at $1,700 just for the base fees — do the math to see what you’ll pay annually.) Nobody expects Mote to do anything except approve it, unless of course he would actually ask for more (which was the original objective.)

But wait, there’s more! In addition to this hike, new fees are recommended:

1. $200 per year library fee (Translation: Yeah, that’s it. What’s a campus without libraries? Nobody can beef about money for libraries. And this fee times 40,000 students is a few million dollars we can displace out of the operating budget to cover other important things, like lawn maintenance.)
2. $60 per year teaching facilities fee (Translation: Sorry we haven’t been keeping up the buildings and classrooms. This is another one that will sound good when we soak you for it. Even we know not to cite administrator salaries or HVAC repair as the excuse for students paying more.)
3. $70 per year health center fee (Translation: Never mind that we mandate private health insurance of all students in the first place, just like President Obama praised the other day. What parent strapped for cash could object when we later ask for more funds to subsidize health? Err … maybe just like Obama will do …)

Let’s face it. If Dan Mote could find a way to show that cute puppy dogs on campus would be threatened if not for an emergency fee increase, then he’d use that as an excuse too.

If leadership was honest about it, then we’d just raise your tuition. Effectively, that’s what is happening now. After all, at the end of the day, the bottom line on your invoice will largely look the same anyway – bigger. So why the chicanery?

Recruiting! The fee increase charade is another victory for the mighty Admissions operation, that will now be free to roll into the new recruiting season (heads up: we’re there now) boldly advertising “No tuition increase at University of Maryland!” (And pay no attention to the fine print on your invoice…)