More student input on tuition spending

A report yesterday in Inside Higher Ed detailed an initiative passed in May at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that allows students to have a "formal role" in determining how money gained from an impending tuition hike will be spent. The university's administration said the proposal will help solve well-known problems on the campus, and both the student newspaper and the student governing body endorsed the proposal. Students from families earning less than $80,000 per year will be exempt from the tuition hike.

The WSN Editorial Board views this initiative as an exemplary case of higher education administrations making solid, tangible efforts to show students that their opinions matter and will be heard. For a university to allow direct student input about how tuition money is spent seems unprecedented, and we think this situation should serve as a model to all other institutions. Not only does this give the University of Wisconsin at Madison positive press, but its practical assets seem innumerable. Who knows what should be fixed in an educational institution better than students themselves? Likewise, in allowing student ideas to help guide where tuition money goes, the university is able to minimize student dissent while at the same time encourage progress in the school.

We understand that the University of Wisconsin at Madison is a state school, so it plays by different rules than do private institutions. But considering the shroud of mystery that is perceived to surround budget decisions from NYU's administration, the university could only benefit from allowing students to have input about how tuition money is spent.

NYU is already making huge steps to further involve students in administrative decisions. We wrote a few times this semester in support of the university's decisions to create task groups comprising both students and faculty to address problems with student life. But we implore the university to continue its efforts and consider hearing the student voice when it comes to how increases in tuition is spent. This would ease the blow of yearly hikes, offer practical solutions to fixing the university's problems and pacify student complaints about rising tuition.

The first steps toward improving NYU's student-administration relations have already been taken, but implementing a proposal such as this would solidify this administration's image as one that listens to its students and truly cares about improving student life.