Tuition for in-state students: $9,208 for this academic year. Out-of-state students: $21,807.
Room and board: $11,436 for this year.
Books: At least $300 a semester.
“What is a cynic?” wrote Oscar Wilde. “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
As the University continues to expand, stretching across four campuses and driving up tuition rates, it can be difficult to keep a positive mindset about higher education. Can we hold on to our romantic notions of college while shuffling through the giant money machine known as the “New American University?”
ASU pumped out nearly 11,000 undergraduate degrees last semester.
And with over 58,000 students enrolled in Tempe as of last fall, what was once a sleepy valley of farmers now houses the country’s largest public university campus.
So does the University objectify you for your credit card? Are we all just a bunch of dollar signs waddling around campus from class to class?
Maybe.
But should you resign yourself to the standard idol worship of degrees?
College is more than a degree, more than a party. It is not just a means-to-an-end or an excuse to take a 4-6 year break from the “real world.”
As Wilde also famously noted, too often do we objectify the best things in life, simply because the rest of the world chooses to do so.
It’s a familiar story.
The idea of economic life trumping all other issues is not prevalent only on a university campus. A tale Canada, Russia and the Arctic illustrate this dilemma particularly well.
In an on-going, six-part series of stories, National Public Radio has been covering climate change near the North Pole, where, “temperatures in the Arctic are rising faster than anywhere else in the world.”
The ice there is getting softer, and passages that were previously not navigable are opening up for ships. But it’s not really a story about exploration, nor environmental conservation.
“Canada is beefing up military operations in the Arctic,” the first article says. And so are other countries, like Russia.
They planted their flag in the Arctic four years ago, and have invested millions of dollars in research in order to claim their sovereignty over it, according to NPR.
Can’t you just smell the oil? Isn’t it exciting?
Sadly, in a vast landscape of blue and white, all anyone can see is green.
When asked about the potential harm to the environment, Yuri Tyulyubayev, a Russian travel company owner who lives in the Arctic, said this: “Of course we worry. But I would not say that this is the first worry in our life. Economic life is much more important for people.”
And this unfortunately universal fact is the same problem students face here at ASU.
We all know somewhere deep down that few things could be as important as our education, few times as precious as our time in college.
Just like we know that one of the most pristine places on the planet has a greater value than potential profits.
So don’t let those bills and student loans occupy the space in your mind supposed to be devoted to Shakespeare.
Don’t be a cynic! Be like Sir Ernest Shackleton, the great Antartic explorer. Think of ASU as the Arctic, waiting for you to explore its beauty and enjoy its bountiful resources.
So when you add up tuition, books, costs of living, and a slew of miscellaneous fees for who-knows-what-purpose, what’s the real cost of another semester at ASU?
Priceless.
Explore with the writer at djoconn1@asu.edu.
