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Promoting Quality Higher Education– An Investment in Oregon’s Future

OTHER LABOR NEWS

UO tuition increase reflects mission failure

March 16, 2015 / Phil Lesch

Register Guard
March 15th, 2015

Almost 55 percent of students enrolled at the University of Oregon will not finish their degrees within six years. Largely a result of significant increases in tuition and the difficulty of balancing work and school, many students have had to choose whether or not to leave the university.

The decision of the UO Board of Trustees and the administration to raise tuition (Register-Guard, March 6) is wrong, and it will have devastating effects on thousands of students.

The university’s top priority should be student retention. Neglecting this priority is not just a failure of the university as a public institution, but also fails the very students it seeks to educate. The UO bears a historic responsibility as a public institution to provide affordable education to in-state students, particularly those who come from low-income families or who may be first-generation college students.

Yet the UO is raising tuition, and there is no mention of offering increased financial assistance. Increasing tuition, in conjunction with insufficient financial aid resources, effectively forces students who receive needs-based aid out of the university.

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