Stan Geiger

OSU Rips Off Student Body---Again

I flicked by KTUL's newscast last night and caught a report that Oklahoma State University has upped its tuition again---by nearly 10 percent. Even though inflation has picked up a bit, OSU's single-year increase is double the current inflation rate.

The report said a full-time student will now pay about $6,200 per year in tuition. And that, of course, is just a small portion of the total cost involved.

Anchor Carole Lambert said OSU is raising its tuition for the "second consecutive year." Boy, I'd have to call that the media understatement of the decade. Why don't you go back about 25 years, Carole, and tell me how many of those years have been marked by OSU tuition increases.

OSU has committed a shameful act of unmitigated greed, and the university should be condemned by every Oklahoman---starting with the alleged "leaders." I mean not even a billionaire opening up his wallet to the university could prompt it to take a one-year break in its constant assault on students and parents.

Boone Pickens is paying to renovate OSU's football stadium, and has pledged to foot the bill for an entire "athletic village." He recently gave $100 million to the school for endowed chairs and professorships. That contribution, if you were unaware, commits the state to giving OSU another $100 million in matching funds. And, if I'm not mistaken, I heard a brief mention of yet another Pickens contribution, one of $9 million to the geology department.

OSU responds to its windfall by upping tuition on its already-debt-laden students.

Meanwhile, OSU just paid a failed basketball coach a couple of million just to quit. Then it hired a new coach, paying him $1.3 million a year, which is nearly twice as much as the school was paying the guy it just paid the couple of million to quit. The school also just hired a new president (I use the term loosely), at an annual salary of $350,000, which is $75,000 more than his predecessor was making.

I'll stop with just the state employees mentioned. And I will forgo any mention of perks, which are given to university employees by the truckload. Otherwise, we might be here all day.

I think it's time we took a look at the mission statement for state-funded higher education. Do we pour tons of tax money into these institutions for the benefit of the masses, so any Oklahoma with the desire to seek it can afford post-secondary education? Or do these institutions exist merely for the benefit the few at the expense of the many?

Evidence very clearly points to the latter.

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