Hey, it’s only an extra $20 thousand dollars over two years, right?

Kaitlin Mulhere of Inside Higher Ed reports.

Jacking Up J-School Tuition

A proposal to raise tuition at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism has some faculty members, alumni and students worried about destroying the school’s distinctive character.

Faced with a half-million-dollar budget gap, Dean Edward Wasserman announced plans to recommend a tuition increase for the 2016-17 academic year in a memo to campus members earlier this month.

He said the increase is necessary given the school’s financial standing, and that the amount students pay doesn’t actually cover what it costs to provide that education.

He also said that the school would remain devoted to affordability and dedicate a large portion of the sum raised through the new fee to financial aid.

Much of the online response to the idea has been negative, with several people questioning how journalists can afford to pay an additional $20,500 over two years for a degree in a troubled industry with historically low pay.

Students speaking about the proposal online and in interviews for this article said that affordability was one of the major reasons they chose Berkeley’s two-year master’s degree program.

“We’re here because we care about social justice, and we want to tell good stories,” said Mara Van Ells, a first-year student. “We’re not necessarily going to make a lot of money when we graduate, especially in today’s market.”