Tuition hikes at Portland State University spark outrage
By
Kayla Costa
10 April 2018
Students at Portland State University (PSU) expressed their outrage at the ever-soaring costs of education at a public Q&A forum on Thursday evening. The student government, Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), held the forum in response to the administration proposal to hike tuition by 14 percent over the next two years.
If the proposal is passed, tuition will rise by 5 percent by the fall term of 2018, which translates into an additional $440 per year for a full-time resident student, or $610 for graduate students. The next year, tuition will go up by an additional 9 percent, reaching a total of $10,050 in annual tuition and fees for resident undergraduates.
By the completion of the 2019-20 school year, students will have paid an additional $1,270 in tuition. At the same time, costs of living are soaring in the Portland metro area with only minimal increases in income. The minimum wage is increasing from $11.25 per hour to $13.25 per hour by 2020. For a student working 20 hours per week, their annual income before taxes would increase from $11,700 in 2018 to $13,000 in 2019 and finally rising to $13,780 in 2020.
With a generous calculation of $2,080 in additional income over two years, that leaves only $810 remaining after payments for tuition and fees. Taking into account the rising costs of rent, food, childcare, books and transportation, students are facing ever greater burdens just to survive.
These burdens are not isolated to students at PSU. Tuition hikes are also being proposed at Oregon State University in Corvallis, as well as at public universities in West Virginia, Missouri, Arizona, Iowa, California, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
At the PSU tuition…