A bad budget year forced U administrators to propose a 9.3 percent tuition increase next year.
“We are not making students fix the problem, we are just asking them to help,” Paul Brinkman said.
As associate vice president for budget and planning, Brinkman spent the majority of the past week at his desk in the Park Building crunching numbers to come up with this figure, which will equate to an extra $284 in tuition for the year.
Wednesday, lawmakers made final adjustments to the state budget before passing the trimmed-down version, which fell $20 million short of covering the U’s estimated expenses for fiscal year 2003.
The increase in tuition will cover only 30 percent of the $20 million shortage.
“We’re not just going to the students and asking them to fund what the legislature didn’t,” said Dave Pershing, senior vice president for academic affairs.
The 9.3 percent increase seems to be a pared-down version of U President Bernie Machen’s former statement that a tuition increase would be “significant” and in double digits.
“Obviously, we would have liked to see tuition set below 9.3 percent. We cannot let this large of an increase become a trend, but with the difficulties with state funding, keeping tuition under 10 percent is a big win for students,” said Ben Lowe, U student body president.
Unfunded state support for the base budget, enrollment growth, information systems and library acquisitions created the need for a tuition jump which is only a few figures different than last year’s 6.8 percent increase.
Last year started out as one of the best years ever as far as the U’s allotment of state appropriated funds, Brinkman said. Last year’s increase in tuition, however, went mostly toward faculty salaries. This year, no tuition money will be given to salaries, but $300,000 will be used for faculty health and dental benefit increases.
Administrators say that $3 million of the $5 million created by the tuition increase will go to academic departments to keep class sections open. The tuition funds will also be used to maintain services for students, administrative computing and Marriott Library.
From tuition funding, the U administration also created a need-based tuition waiver program. Students who fall short of qualifying for government aid will qualify for the 1,000 $250 waivers created by administrators.
The waiver combats the tuition increase to enable students to stay online for graduation, Pershing said.
Before the tuition increase will go into effect, the state Board of Regents and the U Board of Trustees must approve it.