It’s the same thing every single year. Because of it, students at this school and throughout the state are nickeled and dimed.

But that is not the way it was ever supposed to be. North Carolina State University was founded on March 7, 1887 as a land grant institution — to serve the people of North Carolina. It was among a generation of schools created in 1862 by the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which opened the doors of education to students of the working class across the country. Article IX, Section 9 of the North Carolina Constitution even reads, “The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.”

So what happened? The fault lies with two groups of people: administrators at N.C. State and the UNC system, and legislators at the General Assembly. Since 1986, the percentage of money provided by the legislature has decreased, while the number of students has increased. For school administrators, year after year, the solution to that problem is to raise tuition and fees. Every year, more students are priced out of the University, which was provided for the working class people of North Carolina.

That would all change if the University administrators took a stance and said, “No, we are charging our students enough — we will not raise tuition.” That would force the General Assembly to do something. The administrators need to stop giving our elected politicians an easy way out. I’m not alone in taking this stance by the way — just a month ago, Gov. Mike Easley told reporters that it was time “[to] stop raising tuition completely … [and] let the legislature fund what the universities and community colleges need.”

But I can tell you right now, our administrators will never take that stance. Why? Because they are weighing our tuition against an arbitrary group of “peer institutions.”

But I could care less if we are not Cornell or UNC-Chapel Hill. I could have gone to either school, but I chose State — just like many of us. So let’s stop comparing Rams to Wolves. They are not the same.

The administration must start listening to students. The administration has lost touch. When was the last time your opinion was asked about something you should pay?

We elect student representatives to be a voice to the administration. But school administrators are doing everything in their power to marginalize that voice. Why else would the administration order departments requesting an increase in student fees not to present their requests to the Student Senate? It’s supposed to be a two-stage process, where students are supposed to be allowed to give plenty of input. But that’s not happening. And we are left with four students on the University committees who are making final recommendations to the chancellor. Four students in 30,000.

The other side of the issue is the General Assembly. Every year, it’s the same story. In bad years, our representatives cut our funding; in good years, they ignore our enrollment growth and blindly refuse to increase our funding. They establish an Education Lottery, but dictate only a small portion of that lottery goes to colleges. They give us bonds to build new buildings, but not the money to staff or furnish them. They raise the minimum wage and salaries for state employees, but don’t provide the money to fund it. And students and their families are left to bear the burden.

The time has come. Students are paying enough, and we cannot afford to pay more.

It is time for all our leaders – our school administrators and our state legislators — to stop and think about what they are doing.

It is time to ask some hard questions. Questions like, “Do you really want to shut another student out of the chance to go to college? Do you want another student to fail out because he has to work? Or another student drop out because she cannot afford tuition?”

It is time to reinforce what our University was founded to do — provide for the working class of North Carolina, not the elite. Let’s bring tuition back to being as free as practicable. For once, do something that will not keep another student away from the opportunity to go to the people’s college — our college — North Carolina State University!

E-mail Adam at [email protected].