Students Should Think Critically About Administration's Price Hikes

Sign to event parking at The University of Texas at Tyler. (Source: James Hescock) 

On Tuesday, the University of Texas at Tyler (UT-Tyler) confirmed it will raise the price of the student parking permit to $80 for the 2018-2019 academic year.

A university spokesperson cited the school's "continued growth" as justification for the increase and said that the increases "will fund parking lot maintenance and future parking lots." The spokesperson declined to clarify whether the administration sought student input before it decided to raise students' parking cost.

However, compared to the faculty and staff, the students don't actually have it that bad. According the spokesperson, the university also raised the parking price on university employees, from $72 to $100. That's a $28 annual increase for parking on-campus.

However, now that all employees are paying one rate, the school has apparently nixed the specialty rate of "Reserved Parking." It used to cost $144 and was exclusive to administrators, deans and department heads only.

So while this change brings pros and cons for some university employees, the students have less of a price hike than employees.

Nevertheless, it is the second time in roughly two years the University has raised the price of parking on students. In Fall 2016, it went up from $48 to $72 ($28) and now in Fall 2018, the school raised it from $72 to $80 ($8).

In both instances, the University cited its growth and the necessity to save for future parking lots as justification for raising the price.

Let's take a look at it.

The school said the University's growth and need to save money for new parking lots is no doubt. But who can challenge this? Personlly, I don't know how much future parking lots cost, but if they're as big as the current university parking lots, I suspect the University is justified to want (need) some amount savings to purchase new lots' construction. This sounds great.

Yet, what gets me is that a University, which used to be have a reputation for a quality education at an exceptionally low price, is again raising its prices on students (and this follows a nearly 19.5 percent tuition and fee increase for some nursing, engineering and business students that passed last year).

It seems like the humble and meek UT-Tyler I knew for a long time may be showing signs that it is turning into something else, something more expensive and cost-prohibitive.

Another aspect of this price increase that concerns me is the University's use of vague and non-specific ideals to justify its price hike on students.

The more I go to meetings in my life, the more I notice people tend to use ideals that are generally good in order to justify doing what might actually be foolish. This seems to happen in higher education, too.

For example, when I worked in a call center, for some employees, spending a longer time than necessary on the phone with a customer was "customer service" and when I was in fast food, taking forever to make a hamburger was "attention to detail."

I've come to believe these tendencies to idealize the irresponsible both can and do exist in higher education, just like they exists everywhere else.

Terms like "growth" and "future parking lots" seem to have the appearance of good ideals, but they can often come with the false assurance that the University will do well by charging students more money for education as long as it is charges student more money in the name of commendable ideals.

Plans have more accountability than ideals. I would rather the University avoid abstract ideals like "growth" and "new parking lots" and instead get specific about its goals for the sake of accountability.

Instead of citing "growth", the school could say the increases are "to cover the costs of hiring a new employee to manage our historically high volume of parking-related traffic violations" or "to amass enough capital to provide a down payment on a new parking lot by Spring 2020."

Something like this would be great because measurable, concrete justifications help protect students from what could be irresponsible price hikes because plans are more accountable than ideals.

So, prices continue to rising for students at UT-Tyler amidst a troubling trend for Texans who valued the great quality, low-cost education we've come to expect from UT-Tyler for years. In the midst of this change, students should be unafraid to speak up for their interests and this includes requesting more specifics in areas that implicate their finances. After all, critical thinking and self-assertiveness are part of being a healthy person.

Twitter: @jhescock