Tuition increases affect everyone, but the recent increase is affecting out-of-state residents more than North Carolina residents, here at N.C. A&T. Being a sophomore from Washington, D.C., my tuition is priced at a little over $29,000, which is $5,000 more than what I was paying less than four months ago as a freshman.

Being a D.C. native, I, as well as every other high school, D.C. graduate, receive D.C. TAG, a program that pays $10,000 in the difference between in-state and out-of-state costs. The District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant (D.C. TAG) is to expand higher education for those residents of Washington, D.C. D.C. TAG can be applied to all public institutions, such as Historically Black Colleges (HBCUs), Predominately White Institutions (PWIs), and even nonprofit colleges and universities within the Metropolitan D.C. Area (“D.C. Tag Funding for College”). Because D.C. is not a state, therefore does not receive federal state funding, D.C. students are ineligible to receive in-state tuition for schools that are in D.C. Why am I paying an extra $5,000 this semester? I still eat the same tasteless food in the cafeteria, live in the same dorms, walk the halls of the same buildings, and the same professors are teaching me.

Is my money going towards the new student union coming in the year 2017, which will cost over $90 million? If so, it will be of no real use to me. By the year 2016, I will be an Aggie alumnus. As an Aggie, I shall return, to show “Aggie Pride,” but I will not enjoy the full use of the student union, so why should I have to pay?

A teacher informed me that the tuition increases are not going towards any university construction. If this statement is true, then that still leaves my question unanswered.After doing some research, I discovered that A&T was issued a tuition surcharge two decades ago. According to A&T’s website, in 1993, the North Carolina General Assembly (Senate Bill 27–Section 89b) enacted legislation directing the Board of Governors to impose a 25 percent tuition surcharge on students who take more than 140 degree-credit hours to complete the first undergraduate baccalaureate degree in a four-year program.

This 25 percent surcharge affected “all undergraduate degree-seeking students admitted to N.C. A&T beginning fall 1994 are affected. The surcharge applies to transfer students and freshmen, in-state and out-of-state students. Students enrolled at NC A&T prior to fall 1994 are exempt.” Nevertheless, the question still remains, “Where is My Money Going?”

—Email Cornesha at [email protected]

• Cornesha Rajah, Contributor