Or is it Yudof's uncreative mind?

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When you get your fall tuition bill you will probably pay around $3,700 in tuition and fees for 12+ hours, not to mention books, food, housing, and other costs. In 1970, you would have spent $104. In 2000, around $1,600. From 1970 to 2005, tuition and fees have increased about 600% adjusted for inflation. You are entering a university that is drastically more expensive than it was 35, 25, or even 5 years ago. At the same time, financial aid has leveled off or even reversed. What this means is that you and your parents will be spending more and taking out more loans than ever before. Just from 2003 to 2005, tuition at UT-Austin jumped 37 percent - beating out every other university in the nation for the largest overall tuition increase during that time frame. What's worse, tuition increases show no sign of slowing down in the long-run.

What's going on? The main culprit is the state of Texas, by refusing to fund UT - and other public universities - at a level that is anywhere near adequate. Secondly, the UT administration is more interested in spending its money on "cutting-edge" facilities rather than fixing the buildings we have or providing more classroom space. For example, the UT Board of Regents approved spending $60 million on a Wet Lab Building despite the building offering no classroom space to undergraduates. Actually, although enrollment at UT has stayed at or around 50,000 students since the 1988 academic year, UT has actually lost 15 general academic classrooms on campus since 1973.

UT officials increasingly rely on students to pay for their projects, faculty pay, and other services. This makes UT more and more unaffordable for many qualified students. In 1999, the median family income for UT students was reported to be $80,000. Using UT's own statistics, it appears that about 64% of UT students come from families that make more than $80,000 per year. The median for the state is a little over $40,000. Bottom line: UT is an elite and elitist school.

Financial aid, at the state and federal level, is inadequate. You might have received a TEXAS Grant or a Pell Grant. Congratulations! Be aware, however, that Texas is way behind on helping qualified students pay for college. According to the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs, Texas ranks 25th in the nation for grants to college students when grant money is compared to the number of 18 to 24 year-olds living in the state.

The U.S. Congress and the President aren't doing us any favors either. By tweaking the formula used to calculate who gets Pell Grants and Perkins Loans, Congress and the President have kicked many low-income and middleclass students off financial aid or significantly reduced the amount they receive. The New York Times reported on June 6th, 2005 that "families with the same earnings and assets as in 2000 would typically have to pay an extra $1,749 before clearing the eligibility bar for financial aid in 2005, after adjusting for inflation."

What all this means is that the American Dream of going to college is becoming harder and harder for working-class and middle-class people. People without boatloads of money who do find a way to go to a great school like UT will typically have to take out staggering loans. The average debt for a student leaving college now is $20,500, according to the College Loan Corp. UT is undoubtedly a great university, but if it's out of the reach of most Texans, then it is not serving its purpose as a public university.

Students have been fighting unsustainable tuition hikes for many years. For example, UT students protested a proposed fee hike of $720 in 2002 on the basis that the fee was ludicrous because UT was spending millions of dollars on new buildings while a major portion of the fee increase was to pay for fixing old buildings on campus. At the same time, UT was raising over $1 billion in a capital campaign, but the administration was refusing to earmark any of this money to pay for basic repairs. Instead they wanted to use it for new buildings that had little relevance to most students on campus.

Eventually, the Texas Attorney General ruled that the so-called "infrastructure fee" was illegal. Nonetheless, UT pursued a different route to get what it wanted. Over the objections of student activists and the student governments of multiple UT campuses, UT pushed for "tuition deregulation" in 2003 - and won, but barely. Tuition deregulation removed the control of setting tuition from elected officials in the Texas Legislature and handed it over to the UT Regents, the unelected and unaccountable ruling body of the UT System [see pages 3-4 for more on the Regents]. Students objected to this move because they warned that it would immediately lead to drastic tuition hikes and was fundamentally undemocratic.

Consequently, as previously mentioned, tuition at UT-Austin went up 37 percent and 17 percent statewide. UT administrators got what they wanted but only because the powerful leadership in the Legislature finagled a deal at the 11th hour. In short, UT students almost won the day, demonstrating their collective political power, but were thwarted by the short-sightedness of UT administrators, paid lobbyists, and certain elected leaders.

Each semester, students get their tuition bill and probably ask themselves, "Isn't this a lot more than last year?" It's easy to sigh, pay the amount, and concentrate on getting out before a year of school costs more than a luxury car. However, if students and their parents say, "Enough is enough," we can make college affordable and accessible for everyone once again. We must demand state and federal funding for public universities and community colleges; we must demand financial aid for any and all students who are qualified; and we must demand a more democratic system of governance at universities so that our voices are heard on these issues.