Why a tuition hike would help SUNY

Hopefully the tuition hike being considered will allow SUNY to eventually become as well regarded as other state schools ["SUNY's degree of difficulty," Editorial, May 8]. The current policy does nothing to promote a single, elite state school that is highly regarded across the nation as a multidisciplinary center for learning and activities.

Eighteen states have universities ranked higher than New York's by U.S. News & World Report magazine, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan and Florida. They all have out-of-state tuitions that are much higher, if not double SUNY's, and most have in-state tuition that is 30 percent higher.

In some cases, non-New York residents pay the same or even less to go to a SUNY school as opposed to their own state school. Why does New York give such a discount to out-of-state residents? Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Christopher Forte, Northport
 

A modest, predictable tuition increase would make a four-year degree more affordable to today's students at Stony Brook University than our current path toward limited course access.

Students taking courses for the first time now get priority over students who are repeating a course. This enables students on track academically to progress toward graduation in a timely fashion, despite reduced resources and course availability.

Students who are repeating a course have already delayed their graduation by failing to pass the course the first time. These students are being encouraged to repeat their coursework in the summer or winter sessions so they get back on track for a normal time to graduation, and won't have to matriculate for an extra year.

Due to budget cuts, and cuts to faculty and staff at Stony Brook, some students will have to take courses in the summer because of limited course availability. So what's more affordable: paying $275 extra a year for four years, as would happen with the proposed tuition increase, or paying $850 for four summers and potentially losing summer-job income, which would happen if tuition is not raised and students can only graduate on time by taking summer courses?

Reduced state funding for Stony Brook University has required that course-access priorities be defined to provide all students with a single chance at a four-year college education at a tuition rate lower than most state universities across the country.

Nicole Sampson, Setauket

Editor's note: The writer is a professor of chemistry and associate dean of curriculum at Stony Brook University