The only thing more predictable than snow in the winter is plans for higher tuition this fall.

Of course you won’t see anyone admit to that until a bill begins to weigh down your mailbox or your checking account, especially since they are still in the process of “fiscal planning,” a.k.a. finding more excuses to raise your bill making this year’s Northeastern education 4.5 percent or 5.5 percent (or whatever number they choose) more valuable than last year. Concurrent with Senior Vice President Larry Mucciolo’s notion of “pricing-power,” a pleasant euphemism used to depict his intention along with other top administrative officials to raise tuition, your bill is going to go up.

Here’s my disclaimer of course, no formal declaration or document has been issued to signify this. Now this is the part when you laugh and say that the fact that no one has publicly addressed higher tuition is even more of a guarantee that you’re going to have to pick up the night shift.

No student wants to be charged more money, especially since, as indicative of our glistening retention rates (yes I’m being sarcastic), Northeastern students aren’t satisfied as it is. But any student can (and most do) criticize the higher bill without seeing the whole picture.

Northeastern has made tremendous investments not only in its students but on campus to enrich the value of your degree as we have become a more recognized academic institution across the country. I do sincerely believe that an unparalleled level of effort has been invested to introspect the way we do things. Officials are now beginning to come to terms (sometimes because we have forced them to) with the difficulty of making appointments with academic advisors, the omnipresent confusion and miscommunication rampant in financial aid and the need for more full-time faculty to answer to a tacit and unrecorded need for more classes.

But what if we don’t need to charge students more money? What if all we need to do is spend the money we do have better? Now this is the part when the administrators laugh and take me for a naive and uninformed student (both of which I’m not). We spend millions of dollars on advertising every year to amplify Northeastern’s presence on the academic radar in the minds of bright college prospects around the country. As a business major I can assure you that I am not so premature to discard the importance and effect of marketing and its role in building an image of a new Northeastern. But our greatest marketing is in our students whom we still have difficulty keeping here.

Maybe if we funneled that money into hiring more full-time faculty (that speak English please), hosted more high profile lectures and events (like the Ambassador to the Ivory Coast which we just had) that engage students, or strengthened the level of services we provide for our students, even if they aren’t recognized by “U.S. World News” rankings, we would become much larger and more renowned than a sign at Fenway. Or maybe it is about smaller expenditures like the $140,000 we spent on lobbying in 2000 which, despite being much lower than some institutions, still seems like a wasted expenditure. I wish I could offer more constructive insights into how we spend our money from a student perspective, but one of the saving graces Northeastern relies on is that it is private (meaning you’ll never know where your money is really going) so there is little to work with.

If anyone thinks I’m being cynical then maybe they should talk to the stream of students we see struggling to stay here with the bills they already have. I have stories, faces and quotes which I’ll gladly give you. It’d be nice to get the pile off my desk. I’m being real. This year’s push for bigger bucks is going to be met with a lot louder student response then previous ones. Here’s a forecast for you. The chance of outrage is 99 percent with heavy precipitation (please dress warmly because this year we won’t be so quiet).

My challenge to administrators is to offer students the information on every additional dollar charged to a Northeastern student (if of course tuition rises again) to explain why and where all of our money is going. Think I’m asking too much? Ask a Northeastern student and they’ll tell you that you’re charging too much.

– Michael R. Romano is a sophomore

international business major and

Vice President of Student Affairs for the Student Government Association.