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Our position on the proposed 10% tuition and other fee increases

By Vinculum, Tinig-Himig, Posas, SLU Debate Society,
White and Blue, College of Engineering-SB,
CHS Repertory, Neolouphis

Saint Louis University has recently announced its intention to impose 10% tuition and 5% miscellaneous fee increases for SY 2005-2006. It claims that such increases are necessary for SLU “to pursue its commitment to quality education.” The school administration further claims that SLU has “to contend with the ever-increasing costs of operations and the … need to maintain a competitive compensation … for its … employees.”

Without doubt, we agree with the school on presuppositions of its argument. First, there is economic crisis. Everything seems to be increasing right now: fare increases, oil prices, prices of basic commodities, Value-added tax, tuition fees and so on. The school thus argues a tuition fee hike is meant to counteract the effects of inflation.

But the truth is that we all suffer from this crisis. SLU alone does not bear the brunt of inflation. There are a thousand families more, and there are thousand students who come from the lower-income bracket, too, who could barely satisfy their daily needs.

Second, SLU must give necessary “pay hike “to its faculty and non-teaching personnel. Understandably, any school should employ the best faculty by providing scholarship grants and better monetary and non-monetary compensation packages. When employees are duly compensated, we could have dedicated and scholarly faculty.

To agree however does not entail blind acceptance or mere approval. As Michel De Montaigne puts it: There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

Thus, we take the courage to assert the following:

* A moratorium on tuition and other fees. Our call for an immediate moratorium on tuition and exorbitant fee hikes is clearly called for amid the financial crunch being experienced by Filipino households. To increase further the already expensive tuition rate in private tertiary school is unjust and will not make life more bearable for most of us.
* SLU is now financially stable and could work on the current tuition and other fee rates to improve the delivery and overall quality of education. This means that SLU can still counteract the effects of inflation, hire instructors with masters or PhD degrees, give necessary salary increases to its employees, and to modernize school facilities without additional increases in tuition and other fees.
* As to the need to increase tuition and other fee rates, SLU must provide us justifications. If it does not provide clear and truthful justifications, the proposed tuition and other fee increase is not only wrong, it is illicit. A sensible school must always explain all fee increases to their students and parents beforehand, via a letter or by posting it on campus billboards, preferably prior to the beginning of first semester.
* The school administration should likewise provide us, or at least, show copies of their financial income status. Provide us with the actual computations and distribution of incremental proceeds of the past years.
* As to the Carry-Over-Scheme, we should tell everyone that it was primarily SLU’s non-recognition of the judgment of the Arbitration Committee (duly recognized and formed by both the SSC and SLU Administration which led to the legal battle. The Arbitration Committee decided that the Carry-Over-Scheme was a form of tuition fee increase and therefore should be subjected to consultation with the Student Council. Such judgment was dismissed by the school and went on to implement the Carry-Over-Scheme.

We should remind people that previous decisions of Arbitration Committees formed in the past, although those earlier decisions were less favorable to the students and more favorable to the administration, were duly respected and honored by the students. It would have been therefore the moral obligation of the SLU Administration to respect and honor the Arbitration Committee’s decision on the Carry-Over-Scheme.

We demand to the SLU administration that a negotiation be called regarding the proposed tuition and miscellaneous increases.

Hence, we urge the SLU administration to fulfill its moral obligation. In doing so, it shall teach its students the value of “moral responsibility and accountability” and SLU will start “building up a community of believers in pursuit of excellence…” (March 21, 1997 Inaugural Address of the SLU President, Rev Fr Paul Van Parijs, CICM) #

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