I don’t know how many of you have noticed, but things are getting rather pricey around here. What a few semesters ago “wasn’t so bad” now seems to be unaffordable. The money some people get from financial aid is intended to cover the costs of a full-time workload, plus books, on a semester basis. Now people utilizing financial aid are having to take fewer classes a semester so that the financial aid they receive (which is the same as before) covers the costs of tuition and other costs (which have gone up). I’ve heard comments such as, “When Tallahassee raises tuition, we have to raise it also, but where does the money go?” And, “In Tallahassee they need a good reason to raise tuition, be it a new parking lot or new computer rooms. But in Panama? The salaries of professors and staff has not been raised, and I don’t see any new computer rooms.” (In fact, some salaries have been raised). Well, nobody likes a raise in the prices of anything. But instead of simply complaining about the raise, I decided to get some solid information on the matter. I asked professor, and Vice Rector, Alexandra Anyfanti to answer a few questions on the subject and she was more than willing to assist me in my quest. I sent an e-mail with a list of a few questions which I feel broadly covered the topic, and the responses were as follows:

     1) What was the tuition before?
     The tuition per credit hour was raised from 140.00 to 147.00, and the Panama Technology Fee was raised from 60.00 to 63.00. The fee adjustment represents a 5% increase over the pre-existing fees.

     2) Which components of the semester fees were raised?
     Only two components were raised: Tuition per Credit hour cost and Technology Fee. No other fee components (such as Application fee, etc.) were changed.

     3) Who did the raising?
     Decisions such as fee adjustments are taken by the Board of Directors of FSU-Panama. The Board of Directors consists of 9 members (5 from Tallahassee and 4 from Panama). The decision to raise the tuition fees was decided on a meeting of the Board of directors. The fee adjustments were announced and posted on the FSU-Panama website in a timely manner, so as to allow the current and prospective students to plan ahead see this link).

     4) Why?
     This decision goes in line with the increase that Tallahassee is also making effective. As a matter of fact, the raise that Tallahassee has decided upon is an annual increase of 8%. The local decision then follows upon the general tendency in the States for meeting the increase in services and cost of running an educational institution. Given our location and particular economic reality of Panama the approved increase is not 8% but 5% annually. Furthermore, such an increase allows FSU-Panama to continue its efforts towards offering a quality program.

     5) When was it raised?
     The fees were adjusted in August 2004 and were made effective Fall 2004.

     6) Will this trend continue in the future?
     Yes, with the mentioned annual increase of 5%.

     7) Why do the people who raised the tuition think that it was a good idea?
     With a decision of that range we are not talking about being or not "a good idea." It should be more prudent to think of the rationale behind it. It is not a decision that is taken randomly, arbitrarily or whimsically. So, the rationale behind tuition increase is the potential to cover costs whose trend is to increase. It's a lot worse in the US, where the average tuition increase in many states is the double figure range. A tuition increase allows the university to meet the increasing cost of maintaining the program functional as well as to plan improvements in all areas, such as curriculum expansion or technology integration.

     Even though we may not like the idea of paying more a semester, it’s going to happen. I hope the information provided above clears up any misconceptions or other general angst concerning the issue of rising prices. If we don’t have accurate information on a subject, we tend to jump to conclusions and conspiracy theories in our anger at the circumstance itself. For instance when I asked fellow students “Did you know that the tuition and technology fee were raised?” most students said no. The ones that did notice the increase were typically unsure where the raise in price came from, and either didn’t care, making comments such as, “yeah, but what can we do about it”, or were very angry but didn’t know exactly where to direct that anger. As the economy around us inflates, so must the prices of our tuition and fees. What do you think? Is there anything we can do? Do you agree that tuition needed to be raised? These are some things to think about. With knowledge comes power.


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