Student government representatives and the Collegian have chosen to ignore most of the story when discussing rising tuition. There is no denying that the state has not been as financially supportive of Penn State as it should. According to Bill Mahon, state funding cuts have totaled $43.5 million since 2001-2002.

When students only see this number, it is easy to think the tuition increases we have seen are clearly justified. However, trumpeting this cut in a relatively small portion of the total budget while ignoring tuition revenue does not show the full picture.

From 2001-2002 to 2004-2005, revenue from tuition has increased by $265.8 million.

When combined with the $43.5 million loss and the $9.3 million appropriation increase for 2004-2005, Penn State is $231.6 million in the black for its combined state and tuition revenue since 2001-2002. The picture becomes clearer when examining the total budget, which has increased by $636 million since 2001-2002.

Can the state really be expected to keep up with growth nearing three times inflation? There is no excuse for students to not know the full story. The numbers are all available at www.budget.psu.edu.