Wednesday, the Technician ran an opinion column titled “Why college shouldn’t be free,” by Missy Furman. Usually I enjoy Missy’s columns, but I took issue when she dismissed the idea of affordable higher education as a joke and implied that it is easy to conjure tens of thousands of dollars to pay for an education that has become necessary in the 21st century.

In-state NC State students pay nearly $9,000 in just tuition and fees every year; no student needs to be reminded that college is expensive. Adjusting for inflation, the cost of tuition and fees at public universities has nearly doubled since 2000, making higher education increasingly inaccessible to those who cannot afford it. Missy’s column acknowledges this fact, but with a quick hand-wave, she suggests that those who do not have the resources to pay their own way simply “get a scholarship,” as if it’s a two-step process to get accepted to college and receive a full ride. To disregard the crippling financial burden that many students face is extremely disrespectful and is out of touch with reality.

Making college tuition free would encourage more people to attend, this is where the truth of Missy’s argument begins and ends. Still, it is difficult to understand how this is a bad thing. Making college tuition free would not let anyone just wake up and decide to “try that college thing” at any four-year university on a whim. Admission standards would still exist, and in fact they would likely become more selective, since there would be a surge in students applying for college. 

Students will certainly not “get their money no matter what,” regardless of their academic performances, nor is that even the proposal on the table. Eliminating the cost of tuition does not equate to giving students money. That sort of system already exists to some extent in the form of federal grants, which are by no means unconditional. Even if there was no tuition to be paid, academic probation and dismissal have always existed, and they would not go out the window. Students with no ambition would not be allowed to sleep through every class with no penalties; they would be kicked out, free tuition or not.

In fact, as any student knows, tuition is not the entirety of our expenses. Beyond tuition, costs such as textbooks, transportation, room and board total to about $10,000, according to NC State. Whether or not these daunting costs are justified, they are surely daunting enough to keep anyone from going to school “just for fun.” If someone can afford to shell out $10,000 per year to go to college just so they can party, they almost certainly have enough money to go to college at its current cost, and a trip down Maiden Lane shows plenty of people who fit that bill.

But for those students who have to foot their own bills, the current cost is very real and present in either labor —over half of all undergraduate students work in college, and about 40 percent work full time, according to a Georgetown University study — or the 61 percent of public university students in North Carolina who graduate with debt, with an average of over $25,000 in debt per student. Scholars are not the only hard workers on this campus, and debt is a much more present reality than scholarships for most, even those who work two jobs, the full-time students who moonlight as full-time workers.

Finally, whether you like it or not, taxes and fees are a necessity that we must pay as citizens and students. You pay into the system to benefit others, just as others have paid to benefit you. All financial aid has to be paid for by someone, whether it comes from a private scholarship, the university or the government. Every day on this campus, you make use of something that was paid for by someone else, in the form of your school or your schooling. It’s only fair to give back.

All things considered, Missy is correct about one thing: College is a privilege. College, as it stands now, is by and large exclusively for the privileged who can afford it. This is wrong. If a student genuinely desires to attend college, he or she should be given the opportunity to make it happen without working more than 40 hours to build his or her own door.