Monday’s Journal-World editorial “Tuition retaliation” fails to address the direct discussions University of Kansas students had about the role of tuition increases and KU’s proposal to the Kansas Board of Regents.

The Student Senate and other student leaders expressed overwhelming support for the administration taking steps to maintain KU’s tuition compact, steps which are reflected in the administration’s current tuition proposal, which went to the Regents.

The possibility of an increase in tuition was a reality which was fully debated by the KU Student Senate this spring. We watched as the 7 percent cut enacted by the Legislature was followed by an additional 3 percent cut implemented during the Legislature’s omnibus session. The Student Senate felt so strongly about the strain the 7 percent cut would have on KU’s budget for academic programs that we moved to hold the line on all student fees. KU students wanted to ensure that any increases in the cost of a KU education this coming year would go toward supporting the academic mission of the university. We as students value the high quality of a KU degree, and we went on record to support it.

We are deeply concerned that failure to provide adequate support to the KU budget would endanger KU’s tuition compact, a student-initiated plan which guarantees a set tuition rate for entering freshmen for four years. If the tuition compact cannot be maintained, no one stands to lose more than disadvantaged students. The compact is one of the most valuable tools students and families have in planning for the costs of college.

KU’s proposal to the regents called for a 4 percent increase for seniors and graduate and transfer students, a zero percent increase for students on the first and second years of the tuition compact and a 6 percent increase to the compact rate for entering freshmen.

In our minds, this proposal represents not retaliation, but a sensible plan for maintaining KU’s commitment to those it exists to serve, its students.

— Adam McGonigle is the 2008-09 KU student body president, and Mason Heilman is the 2009-10 KU student body president.