The expression on Student Body President Thom Walker's face explained everything as he walked away from the Board of Regents 7-2 vote to increase tuition in 2006 following a previous 10% increase for 2005.

"Thom, was that it?"

"That was it," he replied, looking a little glum.

Walker's been pleading the students' case to everyone from the Board of Regents to the State Legislature but it seems that no one – not the protesters or the Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks – can stop the yearly tuition increases that are planned until 2007. As it turns out, tuition in Alaska is not as cheap as people used to think, and what's worse, completion rates among degree-seeking students are extremely low.

"It's shitty, I heard they [the regents] didn't even listen to anybody," said 22-year-old Senior Coleman Chalup while enjoying a smoke outside the Wood Center. Chalup pays about $5,800 per semester, made possible by his student loans, and he attributes the high cost to upper division classes.

One faculty-member from the geology department immediately accused the State Legislature for leaving the university high and dry. "That's where the blame belongs. We just keep nickel and diming the students," he said.

As an example: in the last two years a slice of pizza in the Wood Center has gone from an even $2, then to $2.10, and now costs $2.15.  That's two dollars in '02, add a dime in '03, and later a nickel in 2004. Get it, nickel and dime? Why aren't you laughing?

The average cost of tuition per-semester for college in Alaska is $3,425, still below the national average around $4,600. But even after receiving scholarships and student loan checks, a low to mid-income family in Alaska can still expect to pay about a third of its entire household income in tuition, room, and board to send a student to a four-year college. This is according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

The planned tuition increases mean that low-income families in this state will have a harder time sending their kids to college.  What's worse is that the National Center says only 40 percent of first-time, full-time college students complete a bachelor's degree within six years of entering college. UAF's statistics gatherer, Planning, Analysis and Institutional Research (PAIR) shows a much higher rate of success, closer to 60 percent.

Alaska was given an F for certificate completion by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, despite seeing large increases in that area in the last decade. Don Foley, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, said the challenges to student completion have always been the same: class size, having enough sections for popular classes, and getting the state funding to improve in those areas.

"As states continue to squeeze funding, schools are impacted by that," said Foley, adding, "I think there are some unique challenges in Alaska."

"It sucks," said freshman MBS resident Nicki Hoitt. Hoitt, from Fairbanks, decided to stay in Alaska for college.

To compare completion rates, please see http://www.highereducation.org for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and http://www.uaf.edu/pair/

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