Loyola, stop forcing your students to pay extra for their education 

Today’s college students aren’t strangers to the many costs associated with higher education and tuition. They spend hours upon hours working odd jobs, saving for what many consider the best years of their adult life. However, schools rarely warn of the numerous out-of-pocket expenses accompanying various courses. 

For students in a life sciences or pre-med-adjacent major, two calculators are required for classes. When taking any form of calculus, it’s imperative they come equipped with a TI-84 Plus or equivalent graphing calculator. Often, these range between $90 and $155, a steep price for those already paying for textbooks, tuition and other college-related expenses. 

Life science majors must also take chemistry, where the use of a graphing calculator is prohibited and could result in punishment for cheating if they were to use one during a quiz or exam. Instead, they must purchase an additional calculator for around $15 to $20.

Already, the average Loyola science student is paying around $46,000 after aid, not including any money they may spend on school supplies, travel or dorm necessities. Being asked to pay for two calculators just so they can participate in class and take exams sounds a little more than absurd. 

However, the issue doesn’t lie in a pair of calculators for a student taking math-heavy courses. Most classes come with an expectation that the student will also be paying for the required textbooks or homework platform needed to complete the class. 

Being a student at Loyola involves familiarity with a myriad of these learning websites, especially as the school makes its switch to Brightspace by the end of the Spring 2027 semester, The Phoenix reported.

A student taking a class like BIOL 101 may be asked to register for Pearson’s MasteringBiology, which costs around $100 for a single semester and offers a discount if the student pays for two semesters of the same textbook, enough to cover BIOL 101 and 102. 

However, the school has no requirement for which professors use, so students will either have to pay in full for two semesters or take a chance and pay with a discount at the risk of their next professor requiring a separate platform. 

Some BIOL 101 and 102 professors use Codon instead, a similar platform which costs considerably less. Not only does this lack of regulation on website usage create a divide among students in the same course, but it creates financial disparities and adds unnecessary strain on those paying for Pearson when they could be paying less than peers in other classes. 

Not to mention, the same students also taking calculus — a required course for plenty of STEM majors — have to pay for WileyPlus as well. However, this also isn’t guaranteed because later math courses may require Cengage. 

WileyPlus and Cengage could be avoided altogether if the school chose to only use ALEKS — already required for chemistry students — which also offers math and statistics courses. 

Outside of calculators and websites for STEM students, many at Loyola share the burden of paying for textbooks, as well as required readings for a plethora of classes. As book prices soar and shadow libraries like Anna’s Archive become increasingly harder to access, students are paying, on average, $174 a year on reading materials alone, The Phoenix reported. 

Even so, students are also responsible for purchasing a computer — instrumental in navigating Sakai, Kortext or any of the platforms mentioned above — and are expected to be able to afford any repairs or replacements that come with owning an expensive,complex piece of technology. 

While laptops aren’t a novel idea for students, they only add to the financial burden Loyola’s students are forced to bear while the university turns a blind eye. 

Especially with Loyola’s decision to eliminate free student access to valuable news sites like The New York Times and The Washington Post, students will be paying more than ever for materials required to be successful in their classes, as many journalism and politics courses encourage students to stay engaged with news from those platforms. 

For a school boasting that 99% of its students receive aid, Loyola needs to re-evaluate how effective their affordability goal actually is. 

It would be easy for the school to implement policies and expectations to protect their students financially when it comes to course materials, yet they’ve stayed mercifully quiet each syllabus week, neglecting to address the price disparities students face every semester. 

A simple fix could be a requirement for universal platforms. For example, every instructor in the BIOL 101 and 102 courses could be required to stay uniform in their choice of provider, whether it be Pearson or Codon. 

They could do similarly with math and chemistry, urging professors to only implement the most affordable option, allowing students to pay one uniform rate per class or even receive a discount for multiple semesters of use, depending on the platform.  

Syllabus week and the many hassles it brings seem like a small drop in the ocean of payments students send to Loyola each semester, but the school’s acknowledgement and tolerance for students paying thousands in materials out-of-pocket would go a long way on its journey to becoming more affordable.

College is already financially inaccessible for many; why make it even more unattainable for those already enrolled in classes?