March 29, 2007 11:39 PM UTC

No more "giving away" an education....

• 1 Comments
• by: sethant

Cross-posted in more detail at ChoiceCity:

Colorado State University President Larry Penley announced on Wednesday: “We can no longer afford to give away an education at one of the state’s top research universities…”

Although the average student would beg to differ with the idea that their education is “given away” to them, Penley this week enlisted Sen. Bob Bacon (D-Fort Collins) to introduce a last-minute amendment to the long bill which would have resulted in a tuition hike of up to 46% (pdf) on CSU undergraduates.

The amendment got attached to the long bill, and if only Luke Ragland, a member of CSU’s student government, hadn’t gotten his hands on a memo from Department of Higher Education director David Skaggs, it might have slipped through unnoticed.

After a day of reportedly fierce legislative wrangling by Senators Steve Johnson (R-Fort Collins) and Suzanne Williams (D-Denver) was the amendment removed, on a close 18-14 vote (pdf, p. 787 and 804).

Meanwhile, CSU students are left reeling at the massive tuition hike that the university didn’t bother to tell them about, and which came within hours of passing.