With last semester’s announcement of the Grand Finish program, which awards $1,000 to students who complete 90 credits by the end of their third year in college, Grand Valley State University administration laid out its goal to get students through college as quickly as possible to help students save money in the long run.

The program was a win-win for students and the university — students could graduate sooner with less debt, while the university could stabilize enrollment, leading to smaller tuition increases in the coming years.

But with a recent reduction on the maximum available credits in block tuition from 16 credits to 15 credits, some students, especially those with four-credit language and science courses, will be forced to make sacrifices when they sign up for classes in the fall semester.

This move, which the administration approved in their July Board of Trustees meeting but conveniently neglected to inform the majority of the students at GVSU before they began signing up for classes, puts an unnecessary burden on students who are already tasked with trying to find a spot in classes, which are almost always full. The block tuition reduction will force students who cannot afford to pay $414 for one extra credit to put off taking a class and go down to either 12 or 13 credits, which puts them off track to attain 90 credits by the end of their third year.

One of the reasons for lowering the maximum is to generate some revenue. Jim Bachmeier, the vice president for Finance and Administration, estimated that the university will attain an additional $3 million in income from students taking 16 credits, which would go toward keeping overall tuition rates down.

In an economic climate in which families struggle to make ends meet and the state government makes changes that will make it more difficult for its universities serve their students at an affordable rate, it is important to find new and innovative ways to keep costs down. Changing block tuition, however, is not the way to go about it. After all, what use is having a lower tuition rate if students won’t be able to take all of the courses that they need?

Currently there are 4,167 students taking 16 or more credits, and that number will undoubtedly go down with this decision, and the university will lose money with each student that chooses not to go over the cap. Administration would have done better by raising tuition a little for all students rather than forcing them into situations in which they cannot take the classes they need.