Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

UTEP sophomore kinesiology student Steven Priego waited on Manny Gavi, left, Enrique Mata, Ruben Lecanda and Miguel Angel Perez on Tuesday at Great American Steakburger on Mesa Hills Drive. Priego is working his way through college and will face higher tuition starting in the fall. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)

Paying for an education is getting tougher for thousands of UTEP students, and many who are already working to pay for school will be looking for ways to stretch their dollars after a tuition and fee increase was approved Wednesday.

"It's already hard enough," kinesiology major Steven Priego said. "My first semester, I got financial aid (grants), then I started working because I had to, and they took (the grant) away. Now I have to find a way to pay for it."

The University of Texas at El Paso sophomore took out student loans this school year, and he is working as a server at the Great American Land and Cattle Co. Steakburger restaurant on the West Side.

"I need to work to pay for school," Priego said. He hopes to receive his degree in a total of five years of school.

The tuition and fee increases were approved Wednesday by the University of Texas System Board of Regents for its nine campuses.

UTEP won approval for increases in the fall 2008 and fall 2009 semesters. The 2008 increase will raise total tuition and fee costs for a student taking 15 credit hours to $3,034 from the $2,884 that student would pay now. In 2009, this will climb by 4.95 percent to $3,184 a semester.

Richard Padilla, UTEP's vice president for student affairs, said the increases are necessary to pay for items such as merit-based pay increases for faculty and staff, and infrastructure and operating costs, such as building maintenance and utility costs.

"UTEP is a senior research institution, which means that the quality of the faculty and the educational experiences we can give to our students places us at the very highest end of the quality education of public institutions in Texas," he said. He added that UTEP's status as fourth in the state in federal research spending should also be taken into consideration.

"Normally speaking, to attend a university that is at the upper tier of research activities, you would expect to pay a higher tuition," Padilla said. "Many universities that cannot offer the quality of facilities and services and programs and educational opportunities that we offer are charging substantially more than we are."

Priego said that although he appreciates the quality of the courses he's taking in his major field and the state of the campus, he thinks the increases are too much, too often.

Tuition has increased every year since universities were allowed to begin setting the rates in 2003.

"I want to be a P.E. coach. I'm tired of being a server and paying for school," he said. "I want to get into my real career. If they keep raising the prices, it's harder because I can't take (time to study) because I have to work.

"I wish I could just go to school so I could take as many (credit) hours as I can," he said.

He is a full-time student enrolled in 12 credit hours this semester. He also works between 20 and 25 hours a week. "It's tough," he said.

He attends classes on Mondays from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. this semester, and has about a two-hour break in the afternoon. Other days, he has one class and then goes to work.

"I get out of school about 3:30 (p.m.) and go in at 6 (p.m.), I'm there until 10 or 11, and it's really hard to put in homework," he said.

Priego's co-worker Juan Israel Favela is a senior math major at UTEP with a minor in secondary education. He plans to receive his degree in a total of five years of school.

Favela has been taking on extra shifts at the restaurant while on spring break this week to help pay his college expenses.

He said his restaurant job makes it much easier to keep up with coursework than his previous stint as a graveyard shift employee at a bail bonds office. He also has taken out student loans to help pay for school.

Before getting his own student loan, Priego and his mother alternated paying the monthly installments for his education.

"The installment plan made it a lot easier, but if I didn't have enough, I was like, 'My God, I have to pick up shifts'," he said. "It was a stress on É (my mom) and me to come up with that money."

UTEP had originally requested a bigger increase, but in December, the regents voted to cap increases for two years at its member schools to 4.95 percent or $150 a semester, whichever was higher.

Padilla said UTEP had to cut some proposed enhancements after the cap was instituted.

"We really wanted to boost the amount of academic advising available to students. We're still going to work on that, but we won't be able to do it at the level we wanted to," he said. "There were other developmental programs that support students and provide them with other learning opportunities and support to finish more timely, a lot of more creative approaches we would like to do."

He said these changes will be postponed for future years.

The new tuition increase "is really going to be pretty much to provide merit-based pay increases for faculty and staff," Padilla said.

He said UTEP was also working to reduce its spending in as many areas as possible through recycling, water conservation and climate-control management for campus buildings.

Padilla said students would continue to see improvements to the campus that are not funded by their tuition dollars, including state-funded construction and improvements made through private donations.

"We're very aggressive in seeking research funding," he said. "It helps us attract the best faculty and provide the best learning experience where even students at the undergraduate level can participate in research alongside national and internationally known researchers. It's something you cannot get at other universities in Texas at the same level."

Many students support the tuition and fee increases when they see what their money is going to buy, he said.

But others would rather keep things as they are.

"El Paso doesn't have a high income for everybody, so UTEP, even if it is a good school, they're making it hard for its own community to go to the school," Priego said.

"With work, you can't take as many (credit) hours because you have homework (in those classes) and to me it's like what's the point of taking a bunch of hours if you can't keep up and get a C or a B, when you should be getting an A," Priego said.

In addition to the tuition and fee increases, UTEP students' parking fees may increase, and book prices are high.

Favela said he isn't affected much by either cost because walks to school and doesn't have to buy books.

"For a while I was concerned (about rising university costs) but I stopped caring. I felt my voice wouldn't make much of a change considering the parking (costs)," he said. "I don't even buy (the permit). I just walk."

The parking committee will meet next month to discuss possible increases to the parking fees.

Favela also borrows books from friends or tries to wing it in classes by using only the professors' lectures to prepare for exams. "I get a feel of the class first and see if I need a book or not. I haven't bought any for the spring."

Priego said he tries to get most of his books online.

"I think I saved myself $200 or $300 by buying my books online," he said. "I don't know why the books are so expensive."

He said he spent about $315 for the books he did buy this semester -- three paperbacks and four large hardcover textbooks.

"If tuition keeps going up, that worries me," Priego said. "I need to graduate now before it gets ridiculous."