Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's plan to keep state university tuition from increasing will remain entact despite budget cuts made during the General Assembly's annual session.

After 90 days of debating thousands of pieces of legislation, the 2008 Maryland General Assembly session concluded Tuesday at midnight in Annapolis with the primary issues once again focusing on the state's fiscal matters. Despite an attempt to break away from financial affairs and direct some attention towards public safety, social and other priorities, the legislature's agenda concentrated mainly on spending bills and their possibilities of fitting into the $31.2 billion state budget.

However, the $400 million in cuts that were made to approve the state's funds did not take a toll on the tuition freeze for state universities that was enacted by Governor Martin O'Malley on January 14, 2008.

"An educated workforce is essential for economic growth in our state, yet Maryland families have seen college tuition rates soar almost 40% since 2000," said O'Malley in a government press release back in January. "It's my hope that this third consecutive tuition freeze will help Maryland students and families make the dream of a college degree a reality."

The plan to freeze the tuition for higher education during the 2008-2009 academic year faced considerable road blocks back in February when, during the session, the state Senate, worried about the lagging economy and the year's tax revenue, made a $6.8 million cut to the University System of Maryland. While the reduction in funds and possible tuition increase (which was estimated to be about one percent to compensate) wouldn't have any affect on Loyola because the college is a private institution, peers at neighboring universities like Towson, UMBC, and University of Maryland College Park all would have felt the monetary consequences had the General Assembly decided to retract O'Malley's immobilization on increasing college payments.

"On campus, there was a growing urgency to keep tuition down," said Adam Weiner, a broadcast journalism major at University of Maryland College Park. "It's been growing steadily year by year, and every year it seemed like student government moved to try to freeze tuition. They finally did it and that is a big deal. As a big state school, maybe 75 percent of kids here are from Maryland. If [the legislation] was going to affect anyone it was going to affect those students."

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