Senate president asks UMass to reconsider tuition increase
Students who graduated college in 2015 are entering the world with an average of $35,051 in debt. But, with tuition fees rising at many universities, including at the University of Massachusetts, the class of 2016 could soon replace them as the most indebeted graduating class in U.S. history.
In June, the UMass trustees voted to increase tuition for the upcoming school year by 5 percent. They also approved a $250 technology fee and higher room and board charges.
The increases total $1,459 for students at UMass Amherst, which is a 6 percent increase from the amount they paid last school year.
On July 17, Gov. Baker signed the 2016 fiscal year budget into law, which allocated $531.8 million to the university. This was a 4 percent increase over the amount the university received from the state last year. But UMass had requested $578.3 million from the state for the coming year.
Still, because of this increased funding compared to last year’s, Senate President Stan Rosenberg recently wrote a letter to UMass’s President Martin Meehan to ask him to reconsider the student fee increase.
“The administration at UMass has been working hard to rein in costs and improve efficiency, but I’ve talked to students at UMass who are working two or three part-time jobs to scrape together enough money to stay in school,’’ Rosenberg said in a statement. “This is about income inequality. Working families are remortgaging their homes and spending their retirement savings to send their kids to school. We need to ensure we’re making it easier for them, not harder.’’
A spokesman from the Meehan’s office didn’t return multiple requests for comment.
There are currently 22,000 undergraduate students at UMass Amherst. About 75 percent of recent UMass grads live and work in Massachusetts, and 60 percent stay in the state long-term, according to Rosenberg’s office.
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