How would you feel if a system designed for you was being increasingly made more inaccessible to you? That’s the unfortunate question that students like me — those of us in the Connecticut State College and University System — are facing as tuition and mandatory fees increase.
This is because our state’s higher education system is facing a deficit of $140 million. According to NBC Connecticut, students at Connecticut state universities are seeing an average increase of $334 a year in tuition, starting this fall. At state colleges, that increase amounts to about $216 a year. (This comes on top of a 3% increase last year.)
As a first-generation college student, I can attest that affordable higher education has changed the trajectory of my life. It has provided me with opportunities that I would not otherwise have had to establish myself as a young professional with networking, internships and learning skills that will make me more employable upon graduation.
I am proud to be a product of CSCU, where I have earned academic accolades and prestigious internships even while navigating housing, food, financial and transportation insecurities. These have caused me to utilize campus food pantries and the Career Closet at Central Connecticut State University, which has provided me free professional attire. I’ve also needed to take on more than one job at a time to make ends meet.
So, when tuition keeps going up, I get disheartened about the ramifications this will have for students like me who are using their CSCU educations to escape hardship and create better lives for ourselves and our families. Increasing the cost of school works against students like me and undermines the purpose of public higher education. To increase tuition by several hundred dollars a year to close a $140 million deficit is to increase it by a month’s worth of groceries or a large chunk of rent.
I would be remiss not to mention the disproportionate impact tuition hikes have on migrant students, students of color and students from working-class families. Stephanie DeLeon, a student at one of our community colleges, pleaded in the Connecticut Mirror, “Gateway [Community College in New Haven] is not just an institution for me and my student body, it’s my home. As a first-generation immigrant student here in America, I’ve witnessed the transformative powers that community colleges in general have done for us. … Community colleges are our last chance of hope for a lot of us due to financial burdens that we’re forced to sacrifice our dreams for.”
As Louise Blakely, president of the CSU-AAUP union, and Seth Freeman, president of the 4Cs union, told the Connecticut Mirror about the tuition and fee hike: “This is the wrong move for our system and for our students. While we are facing financial challenges, it is unethical to place the burden on our students. The students we serve are disproportionately immigrants, working class and diverse. They come from the most under-resourced K-12 districts in the state. They are already working two or three jobs to make ends meet. Now we are asking them and their families to pay even more for a system that is simultaneously cutting and gutting our institutions.”
Recently, audits proving instances of questionable spending from some of our system’s top leaders have been brought to light. As disappointing as that is, I believe that the answer to this issue is to not let it reflect our system at large and to not make students pay even more for both the figurative and literal price of these mistakes.
I am proud to say that throughout my time as a student at both CT State Middlesex and now at Central, I have been fortunate to encounter some of the most intelligent, dedicated and hardworking students from all walks of life whom I am proud to call my peers and friends. Each day students come to our campuses to strive for excellence. We are the next generation of Connecticut’s skilled workforce. We will drive the economy of the state. Students of our great state deserve access to affordable higher education that will enable them to succeed.
Taylor Doyle is a senior at Central Connecticut State University.