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LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH/THE GAMECOCK With tuition costs rising, students are finding it harder to come up with the cash. Tuition was raised just over 12 percent for the 2005-2006 school year. ■ TUITION Continued from page 1 and momentum by enabling the university to hire more faculty over the next six years to reduce class size, improve technology resources and increase scholarships for in state students. Other additions to the Columbia campus are state-of-the art learning centers at Capstone and West Quad residence halls. Campus security will also receive more funding because of the new budget approval. “The new budget reaffirms the university’s commitment to guaranteeing undergraduates an academic experience unmatched by any other public university in the Southeast,” Sorensen said. “Carolina has made impressive progress during the last three years, and I am pleased that this budget will allow us to build on our momentum and strengthen our commitment to quality.” “We don’t like raising tuition, but what choice to we have?” said Scott Verzyl, director of undergraduate admissions, and added that many public colleges have been forced to raise tuition in order to sublimate inadequate state appropriations. Verzyl said he understood the tuition increase would have an effect on students struggling to pay for college. “We don’t want to make college unattainable,” he said. “We try to keep our tuition increases moderate and predictable so that people with high needs don’t miss out on college.” He also said financial aid will be stepped up this year, with more money than in previous years being used to offset costs for students with high levels of need. “We try to be very sensitive to people with high levels of need, and we are trying to provide financial aid. We are not raising tuition to limit access to the university.” Verzyl doesn’t expect the increase to have an effect on the number of applicants to USC. “We certainly expect the interest in USC to stay the same or increase. We had a record number of 13,000 freshmen [applicants] this year.” Across the board, students at USC branches in Aiken, Beaufort, Sumter and the Upstate will see an average increase of $198 for students per semester. ‘Tknew tuition would go up, but I didn’t know it would go up by that much,” said third-year biology student Manish Dave. “I’m not thrilled with the increase, but I understand that there’s a reason behind everything.” Dave said the improvements to the campus would prove to justify the tuition hike. “The reason we have several improvements on our campus today is because former USC students had an increase in their tuition. Therefore, the tuition increases will work towards making USC better than it already is.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gum.sc. edu — ■■'“TT- f ■ * -—» '' 1 '*■' --r—T ■■ ■—r*~;—‘ ■ " ' T vr,-- • i ' '< a*q twa i -3*.—i-r"■ -- 1. . ,’S' -iMwr.’«irT: I USC’s Totally NEW Off-Campus Housing Site 0 Searchable Off-Campus Housing Listings 0 Pictures & Maps 0 Email/Web Site Links 0 Roommate Listings 0 Furniture to buy/sell 0 Summer sublets to list for rent www.sa.sc.edu/offcampus