CANYON, TEXAS -- This is a time when state budget cuts are leading more Texas schools to announced tuition increases, and West Texas A & M is putting another one into effect.
A hike in tuition is coming for the Nursing Program at WT, but we sat down today with one school official who says, ultimately, it will benefit the students.
WT Vice President of Business and Finance Gary Barnes says the increase is not a new idea, and it's been in the works for more than a year, but he says nursing is a high cost program, and the higher tuition will do two things.
One, it will pay for WT’s share of the costs for the simulation center that it shares with Amarillo College to simulate experiments and other practical activities.
And two, it will provide a pool of funds to attract and retain high quality nursing faculty.
“The university has had a difficult time with recruiting and retaining our nursing faculty, so we've looked at other university programs across the state and we have found that one of the deterrents is salaries simply because of the nature of that particular field.”
But I asked Barnes if a bump in tuition would steer students away from the nursing program, or just drive prospective students away in general?
“We had a hearing with our nursing students that would be affected, we had a very good turn out, we explained what we were doing and while no one likes to see tuition go up, I think they accepted that there were some unique situations and high costs with the nursing program.”
Barnes says the simulation center and quality faculty are both important, and both of them benefit WT's students in the end.
Barnes also thinks WT will now have a better opportunity to recruit great faculty for the Nursing Program, and a better opportunity to retain those faculty members as well.
We asked for what you thought on Facebook about this tuition increase and this is what you had to say:
Rebekah says - I am a nursing student at AC I was considering transferring to WT next semester... Guess not we pay enough as it is.
And Kelli says - I am a parent of one and I think its ridiculous. Not to mention that it seems that the program is in jeopardy anyway.
