Tuition is the bane of college students’ existence. There is no way around the fact that we pay an arm and a leg to get the education we do here at ASU. This being the case, it is always a hot-button issue and one that the Tempe campus’ Undergraduate Student Government deals with.

I wish that I could say that USG was doing us a favor when dealing with tuition. Unfortunately, I do not think I can. At their last Senate meeting, which took place on Nov. 25, USG passed a tuition proposal that is similar to the proposal put forth by the Arizona Students’ Association. It stresses two points, accountability of tuition revenue and 9 percent of tuition set aside for student priorities.

Both points are strong. Accountability makes the University stand by their word and funding for student priorities enhances our education. However, we are not going about this the right way.

Line 34 of the tuition proposal states, “The University President shall be required to report on the expenditure of all tuition revenue.” There is one problem with that; tuition makes up only a portion of the budget. This means we would only be allowed to look at how our tuition dollars are spent and not other expenditures from other parts of the budget.

If the University wants to fund something, they now have the opportunity to put it in another part of the budget where it will be harder to detect.

“Funds are fluid to an extent. This proposal is asking for control over 9 percent of tuition revenue and accountability over about one-third of the University budget. There is concern that the fluidity of funds could work to prevent these measures from being effective,” USG Senator James Alling said.

In essence, we are not guaranteed a clear view of what the University does with its funds. We are guaranteed a murky view of the inner workings of the University that loves to break our bank account.

Accountability has suddenly taken the place of affordability in this proposal. In the proposal, there is only one mention of affordability and it is very vague. This bill, on lines 28 and 29, “resolves that the administration of Arizona State University should ensure that tuition is affordable by not increasing beyond what Arizona families can afford.”

This establishes vague criteria for affordability. How are we able to know what Arizona families can afford? How can we calculate tuition so it falls within this affordability range?

There is also an analysis of the budget and its breakdown online at budget.asu.edu. Several colleges already have a breakdown of their tuition. Asking for an in-depth analysis of how our tuition is spent seems redundant, as much of that information is accessible right now.

It seems to have gone unnoted in this proposal that students are affected by the current recession. We feel it in everything — our education, housing, health care and more.

A tuition proposal needs to address this. “It should talk about how it is harder for students to afford a college education and the part-time jobs that people sometimes use to pay for it are getting harder to find,”.

On Thursday, the Arizona Board of Regents will set next year’s tuition. They will be looking at each state university’s tuition proposal. That being said, we want to be represented the best way possible; I do not feel we are going to battle with adequate ammunition. It would be great if USG would speak up for us every now and again.

Andrew welcomes your thoughts and comments. He can be reached at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu.