Trustees approve 9% tuition increase

RICHMOND, Ind. -- A 9 percent tuition increase for returning students was unanimously adopted Friday by the IU Board of Trustees. Technology fees were temporarily increased by 100 percent, and room rates increased by four percent.\nThe increase, a recommendation by President Myles Brand, is largely a result of the lack in funding coming from the Indiana legislature. Over $100 million in cuts to education was announced recently. These cuts forced budget planners to look to new avenues to find funding.\n"This state has not yet resolved its financial or budgetary issues," Brand said. "The legislature did not take action this last session. The legislature and executive branches have to come together to produce a workable budget for our state. We gain nothing by eating our seed corn."\nVice President and Chief Financial Officer Judy Palmer outlined the budget for the upcoming fiscal year of 2002-03. She said the board of trustees and Brand presented a challenge to maintain certain priorities in the planning process. \nPalmer said those priorities include "maintaining the quality of the institution and providing access," maintaining, attracting and retaining faculty, and maintaining progress on the information technology strategic plan.\nThe technology fee will increase from $100 to $200 each semester next year. Palmer emphasized that this is a temporary fee that will be removed as soon as the state reinstates its technology funding for IU.\nCurrently IU's hike is lower than that of many other Big Ten and midwestern universities. In November Purdue University announced a 24 percent increase. The University of Iowa raised its tuition by 18.5 percent and the University of Illinois will see an increase of 10 percent.\nStudent body Vice President-elect Judd Arnold said the state deficit will most likely continue to be a problem in the coming years. The budget operates on a biennium so there could still be hurdles to overcome in the future.\n"The biggest thing is…the whole financial management, they've cut just about everything you can cut. There's always going to be inefficiencies, and they've just done an amazing job," Arnold said. "Obviously we're frustrated. They're frustrated too."\nArnold said the focus on retaining quality faculty was positive.\n"We are so happy for the .5 percent reserved for highest performing faculty and the teacher attention focus," he said.\nThe budget includes a 3.5 percent increase in faculty salaries as well as a 2.5 percent increase in non-academic staff salaries. While the boost in faculty salaries will help keep IU competitive among other universities, Arnold questioned whether or not the non-academic salaries should be as high of a priority.\nFull-time in-state students on the Bloomington campus will see a $188.80 increase per person per semester in tuition, totaling $2,286.55 per semester. Tuition for out-of-state students will increase by $626.85 per semester for a total of $7,591.85. The IUPUI and regional campuses will see increases per semester of $172.50 and about $130 respectively.\nStudent body President Jake Oakman said the increase was reasonable even though it is higher than last year's increase of 7.5 percent. \n"I think they could've very easily raised tuition by 20 or 25 percent. But they made the cuts internally first," Oakman said.\nHe said he was also unhappy that it had to be done, and thought there are probably more places the trustees could have made cuts to keep tuition rates even lower. Oakman also said the state legislature should have done a better job.\n"I was disheartened that they didn't get it done in session…I think they need to do their job and get this thing figured out and stop wasting everyone's time with it," he said. "Why education is always a target, I'll never understand."\nAnother consideration in preparing the budget, Palmer said, was to try to keep contributions from low- to lower-middle income families the same as the current year. \nBrand also emphasized that, in preparing the budget, three-fourths of the cuts were first drawn from University-wide administration pools, including technology fee increases, before tuition rates were raised.\n"The University is under stress in virtue of a very tight state budget and budget cuts of $100 million. Our highest priority has been not merely to protect the academic mission of the institution, but to enhance it as much as we can," Brand said.\nBrand also said quality of education is key to the mission of IU.\n"(Reducing quality) is the wrong answer, and it brings us down a road that shortchanges our students…not only this generation of students but the ones in the future because a reduced quality institution is very difficult to rebuild," Brand said. "The challenge is before all of us, certainly our elected leaders, but those of us who support them and work with them, to create a budget for the future that allows the state to go forward. The job is not done"