St. Mary's Tuition Increasing ONCE AGAIN

Once again St. Mary's tuition will be increasing over the next two years, this time by 0% (for in state students only).

Wait. 0%? As in, no increase? As in tuition is staying the same? As in there is no increase for the first time in years?

This is weird, I don't know how to react. There have tuition increases every year for the past...many years. I don't really feel like looking up what those increases were (via lack of investigative journalism) but I know that c/o 2012 kids had increases every year. Tuition is about 15k according to collegeboard (SMCM says that its 12.5k...but that ignores the 'mandatory fees' which is definitely tuition) which is a lot more than I remember paying.

If memory serves I was looking at about 24k a year (including tuition, housing, board, books, etc.). Now that figure is closer to 30k. I realize the the price of things goes up over time, but that seems a bit extreme.

The bigger issue, I think, is that the Board of Trustees wanted a 4% tuition increase that will now be paid by the state for two years. What happens after that two years?

But on the other hand I'm really proud of Tom Botzman who was (probably) critical in getting this done and I'm happy that for the first time that I know of SMCM is getting a tuition freeze. I'm sure a lot of students and parents are happy right now.