The tuition crisis is worsening as the fees for attending both public and private institutions continue to rise at a pace far exceeding the rate of inflation.

Wash. U. certainly isn’t unique in its high cost. Nearly 50 colleges and universities in the CampusGrotto ranking topped the $50,000 mark, and 43 more demand upwards of $40,000. Nationwide, average college tuition has increased at three times the rate of inflation for the last two decades. And strikingly, despite its high cost, only about 60 percent of Wash. U. students receive financial aid.

The Emergency Support Team, better known as EST to the rest of us, is one of the main lines of defense on Wash. U.’s campus against our occasional mishaps. This leads us to question why Student Health Services (SHS) would cut EST funding by $8,000.

As members of Washington University Students for Undergraduate Student Diversity (WU/FUSED) work to increase socioeconomic diversity on campus, Washington University has moved up three spots to crack America’s top 35 most expensive schools in tuition, room and board.

Next fall I will be traveling to New Zealand to study at the University of Auckland for a semester. It is hard to express how excited I am to have the opportunity to live and study in a foreign land. Even though I am months away from departure, I am confident that living in another country will be an educational and life-changing experience.

Amid the tumultuous debate of the health care reform bill, an important issue fell by the wayside. Since 1965, private banks have received subsidies from the federal government in order to support lending to students for higher education.

Washington University’s most recent tuition increase of 4.2 percent, from $37,800 for the 2009-2010 academic year to $39,400 for the 2010-2011 academic year, is expected to be right on par with the rest of the nation’s universities.

A letter to the parents of Washington University students explaining the tuition increase for the 2010-2011 academic year.