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Sunday, March 06, 2005
'St. Louis must justify tuition increase'
By Rimaliza Opiña
STUDENTS of Saint Louis University (SLU) Friday criticized the school's plan of imposing increased fees saying the school is financially capable and should not increase the matriculation of its students.
SLU is set to impose a 10 percent increase in tuition and five percent increase in miscellaneous fees beginning school year 2005-2006.
In a position paper, the rallying students said while they understand the school's contention that the planned increase is to cover additional expenses brought about by the effects of inflation, SLU could still defray the cost and could still hire additional teachers, increase compensation and modernize equipment without having to increase fees.
The students added that if SLU pushes through with the increase, it has to justify the hike by making public the school's financial income status. The school was also asked to provide students the actual computation and distribution of incremental proceeds the past years.
"SLU must provide us justifications. If it does not provide clear and truthful justifications, the proposed increase is not only wrong, it is illicit," the students stressed.
The group also assailed the school administration on its insistence of imposing the "carry-over scheme," saying this is another form of increasing school fees without having to undergo the mandatory "consultation".
In 2003, the Arbitration Board formed by both the administration and the Supreme Student Council (SSC) declared "the scheme results to an effective increase of tuition in the non-incoming college levels." Despite the board's decision, the administration insists on implementing the scheme.
Last year, the SSC, through Arthur Odsey, filed a petition for the issuance of an injunction against the carry-over scheme before a local court.
The filing of the petition however resulted to the issuance of an advisory to its employees on June 23 last year, which stated that the "the determination and eventual distribution of the incremental proceeds from the tuition increase for school year 2004-2005 can not be done yet at this time due to the pending case of injunction filed by Kasama/SSC."
But the SSC said the action done by the SLU administration "is a naked denial of what is due the SLU employees in terms of salary increases."
Odsey, in a letter to SLU president Paul van Parijs dated July 3, 2004, said the "advisory" "is misleading since it indirectly puts the blame on the SSC for the action of the administration in not giving the salary increases of employees."
Odsey clarified the increase in the tuition of the freshmen "is not covered by the carry-over scheme and is, therefore, also not included in the case for injunction. "That being the case, the SLU administration should give the salary increase from the increase of first year tuition increase."
Odsey further said "the Kasama/SSC believes that all employees of SLU deserve that increase. To deprive them of what is due them, and to use the case filed by the Kasama/SSC as a reason, would do them great injustice. After all, keeping the compensation package of employees at competitively reasonable levels to maintain a highly competent and dedicated faculty and administrative staff has been one of the usual reasons of the university in increasing tuition."
Apart from the filing of the injunction, the SSC in June last year, initiated a signature campaign in support of the case filed by the group to stop the "carry-over scheme" from being implemented by the school administration.
"If indeed this scheme is not an increase in disguise, then we should be paying the same amount that our predecessors had paid last school year," said the SSC in its statement of support.
"The carry-over scheme is an insidious circumvention of the law that requires SLU to consult with the students for any proposed increase in the non-incoming freshmen levels."
A carry-over-scheme is a yearly increase of tuition of incoming freshmen. The hike is "carried-over" when students enter the next year level such that a student would be paying higher tuition than what is paid by a student of the same year level, the previous year.
Sun.Star tried but failed to get the administration's comment. The school's security guards told reporters who tried to get SLU's side Friday that not one of the school's officials is available as they are in Pangasinan attending a seminar.
(March 5, 2005 issue)
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