Last week, every continuing University of Tampa student received a letter detailing an increase in costs for next year.
Tuition for full time students will increase by 3.5 percent while mandatory fees will jump 4.82 percent and the average dorm room will cost an additional four percent.
Anyone with a pulse knows that the economy is in the tank. In this era of bailouts, credit crunches and bank failures, hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs, their benefits and their homes. Families are either scaling back or digging deeper into debt.
Rising tuition is an increased burden on students and their families, but it’s to be expected’mdash;higher education costs are rising faster than inflation. The Minaret has a minimal problem with a raise in tuition.
However, we will make one major suggestion: that the top earners at the university take a voluntary pay cut equal to, if not greater than, the three to four percent increase in the cost to attend UT.
In 2006, UT’s president, Dr. Ronald Vaughn, was the 10th highest-paid president of a private university with a master’s level graduate studies program. That same year, tuition went up by 4.26 percent and Dr. Vaughn took a pay raise of about two percent while professors earned 3.7 percent more on average.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the median pay for presidents of universities similar to UT was $240,360. Dr. Vaughn earned $586,891.00, with an additional $87,930.00 spent from his expense account.
In 2007, he took a 3.74 percent raise in base pay. Tuition rose 5.54 percent between the spring and fall semesters of 2007.
Dr. Vaughn works very hard. He has presided over massive growth at UT, including $210 million in new buildings and a $100 million increase in annual income. He earns his pay, but it is difficult to justify such an increase in tuition in such hard times without stepping forward to make a personal sacrifice.
‘ He is one of five UT executives who earned more than $200,000 in 2007, according to a recently released IRS filing.
Combining last December and this January, 48 CEOs at publicly traded companies announced voluntary pay cuts.’ Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the image of this university if its president chose to earn less in order to help its students?
Those graduating next month are paying 15 percent more for tuition than when they entered. From 2004-2007 (the only years available), Dr. Vaughn is earning 16.56 percent more.
The Minaret firmly believes UT, as a charitable institution of higher learning, should not increase the pay of any employee by more than the rate they are charging students.
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