Although trustees approved recommendations for student fee increases last spring, several student services such as the Indiana Memorial Union and the IU Health Center have been left short of cash –\nforcing reform upon the widely used programs. \nIt’s a familiar situation for some of these departments, caused by a trustee directive to keep tuition low and continually vanishing state funding.
health care reform\nThe IU Health Center received its largest fee increase in a number of years, but Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Dr. Hugh Jessop’s said the student fees are still not enough to cover the growing cost of health care. As a result, he said, the IU Health Center has had to make several changes in recent years to keep costs low for students.\nFor example, the center no longer provides patients a direct billing service to insurance companies. It was previously available for students, but it cost the department about $3 per bill, Jessop said. Officials eliminated that service and students now must fill out a form and mail it to insurers themselves. \n“We looked for every possible way to cut costs,” Jessop said.\nThis cost-savings approach is something Jessop has taken to heart. Not only does the doctor serve as the center’s director, but he has become its chief financial officer, too. He’s also been the center’s building manager since the former manager left a few years ago. \nAlong with working to reduce non-medical spending, the number of full-time doctors at the center has been slashed almost in half since Jessop began working there in the late 1980s. With the number of full-time doctors down, Jessop said the IU Health Center has been forced to hire more full-time, mid-level providers, such as nurse practitioners. The health center currently employs 10 – a significant increase since employing just three during the 1980s. \nDespite these hardships, Jessop said the health center staff has worked to maintain a high level of service. \n“We’ve always been innovative and found ways to do things more efficiently,” Jessop said. But with such funding shortfalls, any unnecessary spending was destined to be cut.\nThe situation results in large part from a financial pinch that has hindered almost every sector of higher education, stretching the situation beyond the Bloomington campus. And it has forced trustees to make a tough choice: raise tuition or curb University spending. \nBut significant tuition hikes simply are not an option, University trustees have said. State allocations for higher education have hardly kept pace with inflation, growing an average of 1.5 percent per year, according to information from IU’s Office of Government Relations. Administrators have minimal pull over oft-contested state budget proposals and have experienced minimal allocation increases as a result.\nTuition rates will continue to rise due to both flat state allocations and inflation. Trustees have said this situation is virtually unavoidable, but have viewed mandatory student fees as an adjustable resource.\n“We don’t want to burden the students with fees on top of tuition that continually has to be adjusted every year,” said IU trustee Sue Talbot, acknowledging that funding for student services has been a tough issue for trustees to resolve. \nThe outcome? The student-led Committee for Fee Review has been instructed by trustees to minimize its recommendations on student fees, members of the committee have said. Typically, that committee will submit recommendations, which in the past have been readily approved. Still, amidst the efforts to keep tuition low, trustees have warned the committee to minimize student fee recommendations or face the possibility of having their suggestions rejected, committee members said. \nunion dollars\nSectors beyond student health services have felt the effects of a minimalist approach to student-service financing. The IMU has been forced to adapt new revenue-generating standards in hopes of making up for lost University cash. \nWhile in 1995 the IMU received more than $600,000 from the University, support since has plummeted to about $165,000 in 2007, and IMU officials have expressed their concern. If financing trends continue, the Union might not be able to keep providing at least some of its student programs, according to information from a 2007 financing proposal.\nThe diminishing campus funds are just a part of making the IMU more self-sufficient, Talbot said. Rather than continuing to rely on student fees to operate programs, Talbot said the Union’s increased independence would help reduce fees and avoid tuition hikes. \nBut Bruce Jacobs, the IMU’s interim executive director, isn’t complaining. \nIt is a situation Jacobs has acknowledged and said his staff is constantly working through – shifting the Union’s economic focus to one of greater independence. Specifically, the Union has done two things to prioritize the building’s maintenance projects and increase hotel occupancy, Jacobs said. By focusing primarily on maintenance projects only in high-traffic student areas, Jacobs said the IMU could retain its well-kept appearance while saving cash. \nIt’s a similar situation for both Jacobs and Jessop – two men pinching the penny to provide services for students. And even though Jacobs acknowledged some cost saving attempts in the IMU might not work, he said he believed his institution was about more than money. Rather, it was about teaching, he said. \n“You shouldn’t make these decisions based on the bottom line only,” Jacobs said. \nIt’s a situation familiar for so many departments at the far-reaching institution.\n“Everyone at the University has the same issue,” Jessop said. “Funding isn’t there and we know that.”
