Tuition rates might not be set until late July

With the state budget unset until possibly the end of this month, IU trustees likely will wait until July before setting tuition rates for the school year that starts Aug. 31.

The board of trustees will meet Thursday and Friday at IU-Northwest Gary, and administrators had hoped members could vote on salary and tuition then.

But trustees must wait on the General Assembly to pass a state budget. Legislators will go into special session Thursday with the goal of passing a new state budget before the current one expires June 30.

Roger Thompson, IU’s vice provost for enrollment management, said parents of students have been calling the school with their concerns about costs.

“We’re still getting the calls,” Thompson said Friday. “Parents are fairly anxious. It’s a tough situation.”

Thompson said administrators tell parents what IU President Michael McRobbie has said – that the school will move quickly to set rates “as soon as the state takes action.”

Freshman orientation starts June 16.

Neil Theobald, IU vice president and chief financial officer, said it’s the latest that tuition has remained unsettled in his 16 years at IU.

IU trustees aren’t scheduled to gather again until mid-August, so a special session will likely be called in July to set tuition and salaries.

“We will almost certainly have to call a special meeting to do both of those,” Theobald said.

The nine-member board must have a quorum, or five members, physically present at the meeting to approve agenda items.

“The others can participate by phone as long as five are there,” trustees secretary Robin Roy Gress said.

At the July meeting – no date has been set – the trustees will come up with a tuition proposal, and then must give the public a 10-day comment period, by law, Theobald said. After that, the University must hold one public forum on tuition rates.

Tuition is set two years at a time. In May 2007, trustees increased undergraduate
tuition and fees 5 percent for that fall and another 5 percent for 2008-09. This increase was nearly double the rate of inflation at the time. For out-of-state undergraduates, the increases were 9 percent and 11 percent.

IU’s then-President Adam Herbert said the increases were necessary to compete for talented faculty and keep up with rising costs.

Rising costs don’t have Bloomington mother Terri Arnold too worried. Her youngest son, Eric, will attend IU in the fall as a freshman in the Jacobs School of Music. A jazz saxophone player, he was awarded a $4,000 music scholarship and can pay the lower in-state tuition.

IU staff have quoted her a “ballpark” tuition figure of last year’s rate, plus a little more.
“We really haven’t gotten anything definitive other than that yet,” Arnold said.