The Student Government Association (SGA) unanimously approved legislation Thursday calling for the university to raise tuition no more than $596 (4.2 percent) per semester next year.
Although SGA has no power to enforce a cap on tuition increases, the legislation, known as a “Sense of the Senate,” is meant to provide the administration with a direct viewpoint from the student body.
“It’s needed to make a statement from the student’s perspective,” said SGA Vice President for Financial Affairs Billy Haddad, who co-authored the legislation. “We are fighting for the lowest tuition increase possible.”
The first “Sense of the Senate” regarding tuition increases passed in 2003 and called for a 2 percent tuition increase. Despite the proposed cap, tuition rose 4.5 percent. Tuition rose another 6.2 percent last year, when no legislation was passed by SGA.
Proposing a cap of 4.2 percent, higher than the last proposed cap of 2 percent, was meant to acknowledge that tuition will most likely rise at least by the rate of inflation, said Senator Cory Renzella, who co-wrote the legislation.
“We realized that we had to be practical,” Renzella said. “We decided that this was a reasonable and responsible way to go about it.”
The amount of 4.2 percent was calculated by adding 1 percent to the estimated Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2006. The CPI is the estimated rate of inflation. The additional 1 percent, Haddad said, was calculated to be enough for significant university improvements while still remaining “modest.”
Haddad said he doesn’t feel students have seen the results of previous years’ tuition increases, and wants further increases to go toward improving the university while current students are still attending.
“We want better classes now,” he said, referring to improvements in summer courses and the amount of tenure and tenure-track professors on campus. “Those are the things we want to see right away with this year’s tuition.”
The goal, Haddad said, would be to keep the tuition increase below the average increase at colleges across the country. Last year Northeastern’s increase of 6.2 percent was higher than the national average of 5.9 percent, Haddad said. By keeping tuition as low as possible, Northeastern will be able to compete better with other local high-priced private institutions like Boston University, Haddad said.
The passed legislation will go directly to President Richard Freeland, who will make his recom- mendations for the budget before it is passed to the board of trustees for approval. It will be President Freeland’s decision whether or not to take SGA’s legislation into account when proposing a tuition increase.
“Hopefully he’ll pay attention,” Haddad said.
Haddad and SGA President Ashley Adams also presented a “Student Priorities Presentation” to the Fiscal Advisory Committee last month and reported their findings to the Senate Thursday. The advisory committee, made up of administration, faculty and students, formulates its budget recommendations before sending the budget to Freeland.
“This is a student’s perspective of how we want our tuition money spent,” Haddad said.
The presentation called for a number of improvements and changes SGA wants to see calculated into the new budget, including improving summer course offerings, allowing for more tenure and tenure-track professors on campus and improving program planning space on campus.
Another main point of the presentation was financial aid, recommending $5 million be devoted to helping students with their unmet financial need.
Right now, 56 percent of students have unmet financial need, a gap between what the government decides a student can afford to pay for college and the amount Northeastern actually provides, Haddad said.
Similar schools in the “lucky 13” colleges Northeastern compares itself to, like Boston College, currently have lower percentages of unmet need. Haddad said BC has 0 percent unmet financial need.
In the presentation, SGA recommended financial aid be funded in proportion to tuition increases, so students do not find themselves with a growing gap of financial need that could keep them from staying at Northeastern.
“High-priced institutions also tend to have less diversity,” Haddad said.
Although SGA has no power to decide the ultimate tuition increase, Renzella said getting the voice of the students across to the administration is the goal of the organization.
“I think the student body and SGA in particular has to have a say in it,” Renzella said. “Whether the university listens to us or not is another story.”
