TL;DR: Student employees – who study and work at their university – are not paid enough to cover their current tuition. Ignoring other school expenses such as mandatory fees, textbooks, and differential tuition. Ignoring necessities like housing, food, and utilities. Student employees can’t pay tuition.
College tuition is a growing struggle for American students. Costs for 4-year institutions have risen faster than inflation for decades. These prices have continued to increase through the pandemic. I’m here to share specific personal experiences with this subreddit.
The example I will use is Utah State University. This school is not representative of universities across the United States. USU is a public, 4-year university situated in the mountain west. I understand that many of you faced even higher tuition rates, where these problems were even more apparent. Yet USU– despite being the cheaper tuition and lower cost of living– is still unwilling to pay students workers enough for tuition.
Let’s begin with tuition history and how difficult it is for high school graduates to afford college. The following table includes historical tuition data for USU. This data does not include mandatory fees, only the annual tuition. As a point of reference, I have included how many hours of minimum wage work was necessary to pay for one year at USU.
| Year | Annual Tuition w/o fees | Hours of Min. Wage |
|---|---|---|
| 1980-1981: | $552.00 | 165 |
| 1990-1991: | $1,281.00 | 301 |
| 2000-2001: | $1,947.32 | 378 |
| 2010-2011: | $4,345.90 | 653 |
| 2020-2021: | $6,731.90 | 929 |
Last month USU approved an annual tuition and fee rate of $8,960. Between my freshman and senior year annual tuition costs rose nearly $1,000. This hike did not trickle down to my fellow student employees, who are making nearly the same as they were 4 years ago. Assuming student employees work 20 hours a week throughout both semesters then we were never paid enough to earn back our tuition costs. In short, we paid more to the school than the school is now paying us. We are losing money.
| Year | Annual Tuition and Fees | Wage needed to pay tuition |
|---|---|---|
| 2006-07 | $3,949.26 | $7.05 |
| 2008-09: | $4,444.82 | $7.94 |
| 2010-11: | $5,150.26 | $9.20 |
| 2012-13: | $5,931.16 | $10.59 |
| 2014-15: | $6,383.34 | $11.40 |
| 2016-17: | $6,865.58 | $12.26 |
| 2018-19: | $7,424.44 | $13.26 |
| 2020-21: | $7,859.44 | $14.03 |
| 2022-23: | $8,304.88 | $14.83 |
And that is just for tuition. Forget rent. Forget food. If you are a student employee you are losing money.
This problem is not isolated to minorities and first generation students. The reality is that the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford university schooling. More than half of Americans who got COVID or lost income now struggle with medical debt. Student loan debt has reached historic highs. Rising college costs affect every middle class family. It affects every American child. This issue is unsustainable.
How can we change this at USU? What can other students do for their schools?