I can understand not wanting students to take over the meeting but would it hurt to have some student representatives there?

Kaitlyn Schallhorn of Campus Reform reports.

Students surprised with monumental tuition hike while locked out of tuition meeting

As the University of Virginia announced a plan to increase tuition by 11 percent—one of the highest increases in the country—the public university locked students out of the library where its board members were meeting Wednesday afternoon.

With the tuition increase, incoming freshmen will be expected to pay $14,468—an increase of $1,470 from this year’s incoming freshmen. Tuition will increase again the following school year with a $1,000 jump coupled with an expected 3.5 percent increase due to inflation; that tuition does not include room and board.

Current undergraduate in-state students will experience a 3.6 percent tuition increase that totals about $470 in the upcoming years. Current undergraduates who are not Virginia residents are facing a 3.7 percent increase in their tuition that totals approximately $1,580.

An undergraduate student who is not a Virginia resident told Campus Reform that it was “probable” that he would have to take out additional student loans in order to make up the more than $1,000 difference in tuition.

“I’m one of three kids so my parents are already pretty strapped paying for college,” the student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Campus Reform. “To make it a blanket increase when [the BOV knows] that out-of-state students are paying more is misguided.”

“I can tell you that if I wasn’t a fourth year and I had to face this tuition hike, I probably would not be able to finish U-Va.,” Arrianne Talma, a U-Va. out-of-state student, told Campus Reform.