Last March, faced with the prospect of a tuition hike, UH students organized a sleep-in and a massive show of force at a meeting of the Board of Regents.
It worked. The board voted it down.
But the university’s tuition rates are well below the national average. Lawmakers can hardly be blamed for hesitating to divert scarce resources to a university that can’t bring itself to ask its students to carry a fair share of the fiscal load.
Indeed, the tuition increase schedule voted down last year was entirely reasonable and needed. We wouldn’t be surprised if the regents’ failure to support UH President Kenneth Mortimer’s request for those hikes contributed to his decision to resign.
Now a similar schedule of tuition hikes is back before the Board of Regents. Ideally, the students will recognize the writing on the wall and accede without protest.
But if not, it’s incumbent on the board to find its backbone this year and do what’s required. Tuition increases are a must.
