This Tuesday, UNC System President Erskine Bowles passed a plan that will increase NCSU student tuition by $750, on top of the pre-approved $150 hike approved earlier this year. Collectively, students are looking at a $900 increase in tuition, thereby bearing 80 percent of the University’s $20 million burden.

The goal of the University is to provide affordable education to its students in the most practical fashion. How, then, is putting a 19 percent tuition increase, as opposed to the 6 percent average increase over the next four years, fulfilling the University’s goals?

This year’s increase in tuition is primarily to assist in budget cuts. We, the students, are expected to pay more to help the University meet its financial goals. If the University expects its students to contribute more, we should get back just as much as we give.

In July, the University talked about a potential increase in tuition to avoid management cuts and we suggested other means of bearing the load. Clearly, we were not acknowledged and the University’s need to keep its often meaningless management positions is more important than providing students with an affordable, resourceful learning environment.

We aren’t saying students shouldn’t contribute. It is our University and a certain portion of the deficit should come from the students. But increasing our tuition by 19 percent so we can bear more than three-fourths of the burden is something the University needs to seriously reconsider.

The University is made up of students and we should always be put first. Our tuition should be the last thing increased, so our essential programs should be the last to be cut. On top of that, we shouldn’t be expected to pay so much more if the University isn’t contributing its share of the deal. We deserve to have a convenient, affordable and all-around comfortable learning environment, and the University should strive to meet that without becoming a pickpocket.