The University used to offer free tuition to workers, but cut that benefit back. Now workers must pay 25 percent of their tuition for graduate work. Unlike many colleges, the U doesn’t offer free or discounted tuition to workers’ children and spouses. Even with her discount, Weimerskirch Plager’s master’s degree cost her more than $10,000, and her husband’s studies will cost $145,000.
AFSCME Local 3937 president Mary Austin says the university keeps trying to get rid of full-time staff and bring in contractors instead, which ends up costing more money. Meanwhile, the cost of tuition is skyrocketing: Over the past decade, tuition and fees went up 65 percent for undergrads and 89 percent for graduate students, according to an SEIU report. But that money isn’t going to instruction: The U cut spending per student by about $1,000 over a 4 year period, adjusted for inflation. Tuition is so expensive, academic
