Let students set tuition

University administrators favor Senate Bill 6562, which moves tuition-setting authority from the Legislature to the universities. Students disfavor the bill because it moves the authority but not the accountability.

There is another way to move tuition-setting authority still closer to the source: Give it to the students. Use a referendum or commission process. When a university wants to change tuition, executives would present justification to the students or to a commission of students, who in turn would vote on the change. This is the same procedure used by the power and phone companies in Washington.

We have the infrastructure for student referendums. We use it at least once a year. This procedure moves tuition-setting authority into the universities as the presidents want and moves the decision to the informed consumer.

Roger Crawford

Pullman