Carnegie Mellon U. Giving Employees Inflation Relief Checks While Raising Tuition for Students

Carnegie Mellon U. Giving Employees Inflation Relief Checks While Raising Tuition for Students

Why would students and their parents put up with this? What happened to all the talk about fairness in higher ed?

Campus Reform reports:

$1,500 inflation relief payments for staff, 4% tuition increase for students at this university

Carnegie Mellon University will issue a one-time payment to select employees meant to alleviate the impact of inflation at the same time it is increasing undergraduate tuition by 4% to $59,864.

A singular $1,500 payment will be delivered by the end of the month to select employees to provide relief for the increased cost of food, gas, energy, and transportation.

“The goal is to assist employees in addressing the impacts of inflation that have been so prevalent over the past several months,” University President Farnam Jahanian stated in a staff-wide message on Tuesday.

Simultaneously, the university estimates that first-year students will have to pay $76,660 for the 2022-2023 academic year. That number includes rates for a “standard double room” and a “traditional first-year meal plan.”

Faculty and staff hired prior to July 1, including temporary staff, will be eligible to receive the payment. However, the website lists a slew of staffers who are ineligible to receive relief: union members, interns, and part-time adjuncts.

Jahanian blamed the war in Ukraine and the supply chain crisis for “driving prices up.”

The payment also comes on the back of salary raises.

Per Jahanian’s message, merit raises were budgeted for the Fiscal year 2023 and will be distributed based on performance evaluations.

The tuition spike was approved by the Board of Trustees and was announced on Feb. 1 by Provost and Chief Academic Officer Jim Garrett.

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