Gus Fuguitt
As the staff cartoonist for the Voice for most of the last four years, I have forced myself to pay close attention to the issues and events that have made the biggest impact on the student body. From overcrowding on Admitted Student Days to the infamous arrival of the Scot Dog cart in the fall of 2010, I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to offer my perspective on the topics that affect Wooster students, and hopefully, generated some laughs in the process.
One recurring issue year after year around this time of the semester is the announcement regarding the increase in tuition. As we all know, tuition is going to top fifty-two thousand dollars next year; a substantial increase from what the Class of 2013 paid when we first arrived in the fall of 2009. While I still believe that Wooster’s raising tuition is pretty unreasonable (and that students need to continue working with the administration in order to reach realistic solutions to stem rising costs), when I look back at my time here it feels like Wooster’s tuition requires a more thorough examination.
While we pay for a lot of things at Wooster that I’m sure many of us don’t necessarily need, or at least could give up (the Lowry soft-serve machine, perhaps?), we need to recognize what we are actually paying for.
Every Wooster student almost certainly had options to go to less expensive or more specialized schools. And yet somehow we all wound up here, at a very unique institution that affords its students a multitude of academic and extracurricular opportunities, but at a high financial cost.
I think all students should be appreciative of these specific benefits of Wooster and embrace them whenever possible. I consider myself a pretty solid example of someone who tried to get the most possible out of Wooster, either in the classroom or by getting involved in athletics or campus organizations like W.A.C., SGA, Greenhouse and, of course, the Voice.
At other schools I probably would have only had the chance to explore one of these areas, but here I was able to try or participate in almost anything I wanted to. In the process, I made some of my best friends and memories here at the College. Perhaps more importantly, as I prepare to leave for the real world I have almost no regrets about the academic and extracurricular decisions I made while I attended Wooster. I can’t say for sure I wouldn’t have had a totally different experience at another school, but here I’m sure that I won’t graduate unfulfilled or unhappy. Personally, it seems hard to put a price on that.