The recent tuition hike approved by the Central Michigan University Board of Trustees is unreasonable and despicable.

In December, the Central Michigan board voted to raise the school’s undergraduate tuition rate by 28 percent beginning in fall 2002 - which will cost full-time in-state students $498 more per semester on average.

The Central Michigan increase is one of the highest in the nation.

While an extra $500 may not seem like much to pay to top university officials, it’s a fortune for college students who already are scraping the bottom of the barrel to get by.

In an online letter to his faculty, staff and students, Central Michigan President Mike Rao said the need for the drastic tuition hike is in response to a decline in state funding, increases in utility costs and health benefits and budget cuts at the Mount Pleasant-based university during the 1990s.

But we don’t believe poor management and a lack of state funding justifies such a major tuition increase. If Central Michigan is hurting that badly, perhaps a series of smaller increases spread over several years would be more acceptable.

Central Michigan trustees were irresponsible for passing the bill from bad management onto the students.

The only excuse with validity in the Central Michigan reasoning is the scarcity of funding from Michigan lawmakers, who don’t seem to show much commitment to higher education.

Central Michigan’s situation is a prime example of reasons the state’s Tuition Tax Credit should be repealed - a measure that was defeated last year. That money would go to better use at Central Michigan and other state universities than sitting in a fund somewhere that nobody qualifies for anymore.

State legislators need to show more interest in funding Michigan’s public universities. Future generations of Michiganians deserve to be able to afford an education.

Fortunately for MSU students, we shouldn’t have to worry about a tuition hike of Central Michigan’s magnitude in the near future. MSU administrators have voiced their criticism of the Central Michigan’s decision.

We commended MSU leaders for sticking to their vow to keep tuition rates in check with MSU President M. Peter McPherson’s Tuition Guarantee, which promises to keep tuition increases at or below the projected rate of inflation as long as state funding is adequate.

Last year, MSU increased tuition by 8.9 percent. It was the first time since the Tuition Guarantee’s inception that the annual rate raise exceeded inflation projection.

We continue to believe MSU leaders have every intention to continue their promise when they raise tuition rates again later this year.

But we are sorry for Central Michigan students who stand to suffer from their administration’s radical tuition hike. University officials in Mount Pleasant should be ashamed of themselves.