2.6% is normal. We can’t complain about inflation and then demand 0% tuition increases. Most university costs are fixed (even most of the labor due to union contracts). The only major potentially variable costs I can think of are utilities, food/dining hall labor (if dining halls are closed), and transit/transit labor (if classes are online and they aren’t locked into the contracts for buses already).
100% agree it’s a watered down product with purely online classes but there’s just not a ton they can do to cut costs.
I’d also back up other posters saying that a) it’s likely that any students mentioned won’t go to at least 1-3 of their classes regularly after a few weeks, and b) taking 1-3 online classes per semester was already pretty common pre-pandemic. So in most cases, I’d wager the full online schedule only impacts half of most students’ attendance at most. Probably less true for highly technical/harder majors.
Lastly, I personally wouldn’t recommend spending 2 years at community college vs. 4 years at Rutgers. Understand the cost savings and different opinions on that but having been on both sides of the table, constantly getting asked why I was at community college prior and dealing with missing out on jobs due to the potential stigma wouldn’t be worth it. It’s already tough enough competing for jobs/grad schools out of Rutgers against Ivy Leaguers, etc.