A Night with the UMB USGA

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to meet with about 40 student leaders of the USGA at the University of Maryland, Baltimore to discuss happenings in Annapolis and throughout the USM.  The vast majority were graduate students, a change-up of sorts for me because by nature of enrollments, most students that I interact with are undergraduates.

We spoke about the realities of funding of graduate schools and that from the state's perspective, is often a secondary priority.  The Governor has emboldened his support for a tuition freeze this week for in-state, undergraduate students.  Many graduate students have argued that such a policy sets up graduate students to pay for undergraduate tuition freezes.  I explained that the USM has made it a strong policy that only through full-funding of the operating budget with the USM agree to a tuition freeze.  In other words, the Board of Regents will only approve a tuition freeze if all other costs are covered.

Other issues were raised during the meeting, such as the varying increases in tuition for in-state and out-of-state students.  For instance, in the law school at UMB, out-of-state fees raised 4.3% last year, while in-state tuition increased 7.4%.  The intention of such a move is to attract the best and brightest out-of-state students to UMB Law to drive up the prestige.  I look forward to continued conversations regarding tuition policies for graduate students.

Without a doubt, graduate students are a vital component of the Maryland workforce.  The question we analyze is what is most efficient and fair use of dollars appropriated to higher education, between undergraduate and graduate students.