With the likelihood of Stony Brook’s tuition continuing to rise and the possibility that through PHEEIA the school may one day be allowed to set its own tuition as opposed to the state, there is obvious trepidation among students and faculty.
Aaron Dargis, an economics major, is one of those tense students.
Student studying on Stony Brook's campus
“I feel that they can find other ways to find money,” said Dargis. “I know that they haven’t been that responsible as far as spending is concerned, but to raise tuition on kids who are trying to better themselves, especially higher education, I feel like its the wrong way to go.”
With the amount of opposition to the PHEEIA act there has been little constructed in the way of alternatives to the act. Millions of dollars have been cut and will continue to be torn away from the SUNY budget so the only way, as supporters of PHEEIA say to keep higher education actually high is to raise tuition to keep as many programs, staff and classes that they can.
Robyn Wolf is a graduate student that teaches at Stony Brook. She says that students are working hard enough as is to get through college.
“I hear a lot of students that come here because its affordable for them, they’re local students who are putting themselves through school so obviously I would not favor a tuition increase,” said Wolf.
Still with nearly every U.S. state facing severe budget deficits, cuts are going to have to be made across the board. New Yorkers who oppose PHEEIA are going to have to decide as to which one is more important to them: Having a college education that affordable or continuing with the level of first class high education similar to that of private schools.
Of course one would like the best of both worlds but that seems to be becoming less and less of an option.
