Although we have not yet reached the conclusion of the month of February, and despite the fact that Punxsutawney Phil beheld his own shadow earlier this month and declared that six more weeks of winter would be forthcoming, for those of us who live in Washington Heights, there can be no denying that spring is almost upon us. The indications are readily apparent - the daily chill of the early-morning air is rapidly dissipating, students have begun shedding their winter coats for more seasonal attire, and the earliest traces of blooming flora are evident in the neighborhood's sparsely-treed landscape. And, of course, Yeshiva University's Board of Directors is once again debating the relative merits of a substantial increase in undergraduate tuition and expenses - an increase that, if approved, would represent the third significant upsurge in student expenses in three years and, according to information currently available, would guarantee that expenses for incoming students will have risen between 29% and 30% over the past three years alone.

Consider these numbers for one moment. A 30% increase in student expenses between the fall of 1999 and fall of 2002 would guarantee an increase in student costs that outpaced inflation during the same period nearly fourfold. The fact that Yeshiva, according to a report filed by Moody's in 2001, has been generating an operating profit since the mid-1990s - that is, gaining more in revenues than it spends - apparently is not enough for those in charge of Yeshiva's fiscal policy. And so, while the average cost of a car, or a washing machine, or most other consumer items, has risen from (the equivalent of) $100 to less than $108, the cost of a Yeshiva education will have risen from $100 to approximately $129.50.

Yeshiva is quick to point out, however, that these are dire economic times. The markets lack stability, investments are uncertain, and therefore Yeshiva must raise student expenses to deal with a financially uncertain environment.

Now, for most of the United States, these are indeed dire economic times. But there is at least one academic institution with a market so rock-solid that demand for its product has been entirely unaffected by the downturn in the American economy; an academic institution with burgeoning enrollment and dormitories filled beyond capacity; a school that has received pledges for more than $300 million of a $400 million capital campaign and maintains an endowment of more than one billion dollars. Any guesses, anyone?

The ironic truth is that the depressed state of the economy constitutes perhaps the most cogent reason not to drastically raise tuition once again. By all accounts, Yeshiva has the wherewithal - and, according to Moody's, the "powerful balance sheet" - to withstand a recession that affects its "established national market presence" not in the slightest. In contrast, it is the average student - entering today's skimpy job market having amassed more than $8,000 in debt to cover the costs of Yeshiva University, according to U.S. News and World Report - who can ill afford to meet Yeshiva's voracious financial appetite.

And so, until the Board of Trustees' yearly rite of spring is interrupted, Yeshiva students, forced to shoulder the burden of growing tuition demands on incomes from a shrinking economy, can only look forward to another year of economic winter.