When Nicolaus Ramos went to pay his $14,309.51 tuition bill, he paid it all at once — with one-dollar bills.

Ramos, a sophomore economics major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, brought a 30-pound bag stuffed with more than 14,000 one-dollar bills to the bursar’s office on Jan. 14 to send a message about high tuition costs, he said in a YouTube video filmed by the Boulder Daily Camera that was posted online the day before.

‘Money does talk. Tuition is extremely high for out-of-state, and it’s only going up for in-state,’ Ramos said in the video. ‘This is a good way, I feel, that I might be able to send some sort of message that’s different than a letter or, you know, talking to someone face-to-face.’

Most nonresident undergraduate students at the public university CU-Boulder pay $29,493 a year, compared to $8,511 for in-state undergraduate students, according to the university’s Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis website.

‘It gives me a much deeper appreciation for the money that my parents give me just to go to school,’ Ramos said in the YouTube video. ‘They’re willing to make those sacrifices, and to be able to see that in physical form like this is very unique and very cool.’

Bronson Hilliard, director of media relations and CU spokesman, said he understood Ramos was trying to make a statement about out-of-state tuition costs at CU but added that there is a larger issue at hand.

‘He was trying to make the statement that nonresident tuition rates are too high at CU-Boulder when really the bigger issue is that there isn’t enough funding coming from the state,’ Hilliard said.

Although Ramos’ transaction took three people and 55 minutes to process, as well as causing a backup in the line at the bursar’s office, Hilliard said the university wasn’t angry or upset with Ramos in any way.

‘The exceptional education that is earned as a student at CU-Boulder can’t be represented by a duffle bag full of money,’ Hilliard said. ‘Paying tuition at any institution is a lifelong investment.’

In Colorado, institutions receive only about 3 percent of their funding from the state, compared to the 25 percent they received 30 years ago, Hilliard said. This amounts to about a $22.3 million cut in funding. Funds not given by the state are created by tuition payments, direct support and earmarked gifts or donations, Hilliard said.

Sarah Andrews, a freshman at CU-Boulder, said she did not completely agree with Ramos’ actions because, in her eyes, the ‘true’ value of education is not an issue of how much one pays for it but what one gets out of it. But the school should receive a large amount of funding from the state because it is a state school, she said.

‘I don’t think it’s fair that out-of-state students have to pay twice as much in tuition fees,’ Andrews said, ‘just because they’re not from Colorado.’

acptachi@syr.edu