It was nice after Hurricane Katrina to return to Loyola at the same cost we’d left it. Needless to say, the cost of a Loyola education will have to increase at some point.

Of course costs in general rise, and at a private university such as Loyola where operating funds come largely from student tuition, it’s understandable that the students will bear the brunt of this increase.

When the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president, presents a proposal to the Board of Trustees to raise tuition by 5 percent, he’ll be doing it not to hinder students, but to assist faculty, he told The Maroon.

Realizing that faculty wages and salaries have remained stagnant with the student tuition these past few months while the cost of living in New Orleans has gone up, Wildes said he hopes to use part of the increase in tuition funds to raise those salaries and wages.

For once, a tuition increase seems like a humane thing to do. Teachers at Loyola are like most people in the New Orleans area right now, dealing with moldy houses and disgusting insurance companies while still trying to provide Loyola’s students with a top-quality education.

If raising tuition is a way to give back to the faculty who have given so much to us, that’s a price we should all be willing to pay.