A recent article in the Deseret News by Karl Cates said that one reason Snow College is a good college is cheap tuition and that tuition has increased very little over the past several years.
According to the article, next year's tuition will only increase from $822 to $855 per year for state residents.It did not, however, mention that international students' tuition has almost doubled in a year. Does this mean international students are important to Snow College only for the money they generate? Does it mean international students are not even considered part of the group?
While we brought enough money for two years, tuition has raised twice this much in one year. Next year, we have to pay $1,560 for one quarter of tuition. We were told that tuition for summer quarter was around $350 (the same amount of money as Utah residents) because there are not as many students or classes in the summer. But for this summer, we paid $1,552 or more.
Not only has the school increased tuition, it has cut some English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. We were very disappointed when we saw that four ESL classes were dropped this quarter.
We do not blame the ESL program for this. The teachers are great; they have done much to try and combat the problem. For example, one teacher divided his class this quarter (though he is still being paid for only one class) because the Snow College administration has cut the ESL budget. We also know of other teachers teaching more hours than they need to in order to keep a quality program.
New ESL students paid $1,700 this quarter. This means they had to pay some extra money. The information new students received from Snow College in Japan described tuition costs as follows: 1992 tuition and fees $925, year $2,775, summer quarter $345; 1993 tuition and fees $1,302, year $3,903, summer quarter $356.
This is very confusing. When we figure out our tuition and fees per year, our calculators show us $6,240 or more. We have asked why tuition has been increased so much for us and have been told it is due to a state mandate, which requires tuition for out-of-state students to increase over a five-year period.
However, the president of Snow College decided to increase the tuition the total amount in one year. Has he thought about what he is doing to us? Is it ethical to mislead us so much? Is it even legal?
We really like being students at Snow College and would like to stay in Ephraim. Unfortunately, many of us must leave Snow College before we graduate because we cannot afford tuition. Many other international students from foreign countries have already gone back to their countries for this reason.
Foreign students here are in trouble now. Please consider these problems and help keep Snow College affordable for all.
In Cheol Kang
and 100 others
Ephraim