Graduate students cannot be forgotten

It is heartening to see our state’s universities proposing to freeze tuition in exchange for restoring state funding [“Higher-ed presidents offer deal on tuition,” NWTuesday, Jan. 8]. However, one group left out of this plan is graduate students.

Washington depends on a supply of workers with graduate degrees in fields ranging from nursing to engineering to support our economy and population. Yet many graduate students have seen dramatic tuition increases and have no financial aid except unsubsidized loans.

For example, in-state tuition for the UW Nursing-Midwifery program has doubled in the past four years, and some students now graduate with more than $100,000 in debt. This limits who chooses to go into this field and can ultimately hurt our state’s residents.

As we find ways to invest in higher education in our state, we need to include support for graduate students.

-- Melanie Mayock, vice president, UW Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Seattle

Tuition freeze deal is self-centered

The article regarding university tuition illustrates how blatantly self-centered Washington’s public universities are.

They say that if the taxpayers fill the universities pockets with money they won’t raise tuition. That’s a laughable proposition.

-- John Christensen, Edmonds