When students hear of institutions choosing to freeze their tuition, which keeps costs at the current rate instead of increasing them to adjust for inflation, they may assume that a freeze would be beneficial because they save cash in the short term.

However, tuition freezes could lead to long-term costs negatively impacting educational quality. If colleges and universities do not increase tuition with the inflation rate, they are losing money that could be used to improve facilities and curricula.

Though tuition freezes could be costly in this regard, they do have certain benefits. Mike Rogers, vice president of government and chief of staff at Elmira College, an institution located about 30 miles from Ithaca, said the tuition freeze improves Elmira’s retention rate because students are willing to stay for the full four years.

If colleges and universities wish to maintain — or improve — the quality of education, there will have to be an increase in tuition that correlates with inflation. Ithaca College is making the right move by disagreeing with Elmira and not freezing its tuition. As long as tuition increases are within reason, they ultimately benefit the students.