The News published an article today detailing the university’s proposed budget for 2011-2012. Most importantly, tuition will be raised by four percent. Members of the administration are justifying this increase by adding that financial aid will also increase, bringing overall cost of living up 3.9 percent, and that the raise in tuition is in line with other schools in the area. However, administration members did not provide other budget figures.

According to the article, Philomena Mantella, senior vice president for student life and enrollment, said the university’s increase in financial aid spending is meant to help those students who are up against tough economic circumstances, but only if they’re vigilant and “raise their hands and ask for appeals.”

The NU Shuffle has been a problem for years, and the financial aid office is not immune. Mantella said more financial aid officers will be hired to deal with students in a more effective manner, but this doesn’t change that the words “vigilant” and “raise their hands” mean students will essentially have to beg to get extra financial aid.

Currently, with tuition, room and board, and other fees, it costs students $49,452 per academic year to attend Northeastern. With these increases, we will cap $50,000. Our prestige is growing – but so is our price tag, and because of this we could be losing valuable assets to our school when some students just can’t justify spending a quarter of a million dollars on their education.

The budget proposal isn’t all bad though – it includes some lighter, more exciting news for students. Boston Bike Share will begin renting bikes out to students from various locations on campus. Promoting exercise and lessening pollution from cars and buses is never a bad thing, so kudos to Northeastern for that.

Students should also be glad to know that those with meal plans will receive an upgrade in the number of guest meal and dining dollars they get at the beginning of the year. Considering many students don’t use up all of the meals they receive by the time they’ve expired, but dining dollars and guest meals are gone before mid-terms, this seems like a good compromise.

Renovations will be made to Curry Student Center, among other buildings. If money is going to be spent on any building on campus, it might as well be Curry, which is a high-traffic area for students studying and eating between classes, all day, every day.

All in all, the newly proposed budget isn’t very shocking. As time wears on, prices increase, and tuition is not exempt from this process. But members of the administration are already making it sound more difficult for those students who need more financial aid to cover the increase.

Reservations and other improvements to Northeastern are great, and sometimes unavoidable. Having said that, perhaps the administration should put more money aside for those who are already pinching pennies in order to call themselves Huskies.