Keala Richardson works four days a week. He’s also a full-time student and a freshman who is new to the UW and new to student loans.

“I’m paying for my education on my own,” Richardson said. “So far this year, I am $17,000 in debt.”

The proposed 7 percent tuition increase for resident undergraduates surprised Richardson.

Even though tuition has doubled during the last 10 years, he and others feel the proposed tuition cap is still too high.

“We think this is a good step,” said Bryce McKibben, ASUW director of government relations. “But we would like it to be less, or we would like some demonstrated improvement for students.”

McKibben is the former president of the Washington Student Lobby, an organization that helps student governments fight against tuition hikes. He wants students to ask where their tuition is going and how much support they are getting from the state.

In the 2009 UW Core Education Budget proposal, the state general fund should increase by about $11 million. The funds available from collected tuition are set to increase by $23 million. This means that funding by students has increased more than funding from the state.

“We normally say our majors and our faculty are our responsibilities,” McKibben said. “The state’s responsibility is financial aid, living expenses [and] enrollment costs.”

Catherine Bergeron, an out-of-state freshman from Lake Oswego, Ore., feels that tuition should improve the quality of her education. She said the place to start is in the classroom.

“It’s crazy that I am paying $30,000 a year and learn everything out of a textbook,” she said. “Tuition should provide intellectually stimulating classes and professors.”

The $409 annual increase for in-state undergraduates and the $1,079 increase for out-of-state students is set to increase financial aid, enrollment, access to faculty, high demand majors and opportunities outside of the classroom. There are also plans to improve teaching faculty, educational technology and facilities for learning and living.

McKibben said there is room to improve the undergraduate experience.

“We pay more,” he said. “We should get more.”

UW President Mark Emmert wrote in an e-mail that the tuition increase would improve the UW’s ability to compete with other prestigious state schools. Comparable universities spend on average $4,000 more per student than the UW.

“This is a very significant gap and is a measure of how underfunded we are as a university,” Emmert wrote.

But for Richardson, the extra $400 increase is just another expense that will not raise the status or competiveness of the UW.

Richardson, a middle-class citizen, has a paid marketing internship at Boeing Employee Credit Union. This summer he plans to work full time to pay off his loans and offset future school-related costs.

He qualified for little financial aid and had to take out student loans, which he pays for with $200 of every paycheck. During the summer, he plans to use about 50 percent of every paycheck to pay off his debt.

Richardson isn’t the only student facing the burden of having to pay for his college education.

Bergeron also pays for a third of her out-of-state tuition and living expenses. She will have to work during the summer and school year as tuition continues to increase.

If the proposal to increase tuition passes, the University will continue to increase tuition by 7 percent until the 2016-2017 school year.