Concerns with tuition increases...

In September of 2005 Triangle Foundation took an official stand on something that may not seem like a GLBT issue - tuition increases. We sent a letter to the Governor and University Presidents outlining our concerns on why tuition increases disproportionally affect GLBT students.

Personally I believe tuition increases is a concern for a variety of reasons. From the long-term economic impact barriers to higher education - like high tuition - have to the simple quality of life improvements studies tell us having a degree can help bring you. As a movement we can also look at polling that indicates the more education someone has - the more likely they are to support our issues. As a community, we have no solid reasons not to support lower tuition. Unfortunately in today's economic crisis - supporting lower tuition may cost taxpayers in a very direct way. For me, this is an increased expense I'm comfortable paying knowing that the alternative could cost me much more down the road.

All of this aside, you may also want to consider that many GLBT youth are cut off from their families. In addition to having no financial support for education, this disconnect can also make acquiring financial aid - like student loans - difficult if not impossible.

Further complicating matter is that we also don't want universities to simply make cuts and possibly harm important things like domestic partnership benefits or funding for GLBT support services. This is not an easy problem to solve, but it's one worth solving.

Below are some updates from our Governor and our Senators on this important issue. I hope that you will keep it in mind and not loss track of it amidst all of the other important issues our country and our state are facing.