McRobbie recommends ‘moderate’ tuition hike

IU President Michael McRobbie is recommending what he called a “moderate” tuition increase for students, but knowing how much is due is not comforting to many parents.

The 4.6 percent increase, or additional $382, for in-state undergraduates, will total about $8,610 in tuition and fees for the 2009-10 academic year. This recommendation meets the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s goal to keep the increase at 5 percent or less.

“I think students and families are certainly hurting in this economy, but up until now, we haven’t been able to tell students what the cost will be,” said Roger Thompson, vice provost for enrollment management. “Now it gives students something stable so they can plan.”

The University is proposing a 4.8 percent increase for in-state undergraduates in 2010-11 and a 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent increase for the next two academic years for out-of-state undergraduate students, respectively.

“We know in the third year, the stimulus money will end,” said Bill Cast, IU board of trustees member. “If we didn’t do this now, at the beginning of the third year there would have to be a large increase.”

The University is calling this a modest increase because this is the smallest increase in years. There were 5 percent tuition increases for in-state undergraduates during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years, and 9 percent and 11 percent increases for out-of-state undergraduates, respectively.

In the 2006-07 academic year, there was a 4.9 percent increase for both in-state and out-of state undergraduates. In 2005-06, there was an increase of 4.8 percent for in-state undergraduates and 4.9 percent for out-of-state undergraduates.

University officials said it hopes to balance the tuition increase by providing additional financial aid. Administrators said they expect in-state tuition to seem 15 percent less because of the $200 million given by about 50,000 individual donors through the
Matching the Promise capital campaign.

“It’s the lowest residential increase in five years,” said Neil Theobald, IU vice president and chief financial officer. “This is by far the highest increase in financial aid in the history of the University. We tried to be modest in tuition and heavy in financial aid.”

But not all parents are comforted by this news, including out-of-state undergraduate students who could pay $26,156 this fall and $27,673 during the 2010-11 academic year.

Brett Virgin, a parent of an incoming freshman and IU alumnus, said his daughter could go to school in Georgia for free with the help of the Hope Scholarship, a lottery-based scholarship that provides free college education to most in-state students. But she chose IU instead.

“It’s not a problem. It’s an inconvenience and it could prohibit her from going in future years,” Virgin said. “It’s a worry I have that she’ll have to come back to Georgia and she won’t graduate from my alma mater.”

As far as financial aid is concerned, Virgin said he makes too much money to qualify.
Shannan Kirby, whose son is an incoming freshman, said her family has applied for financial aid, but they haven’t received much. Her family plans to look into student loans.

“It’s really hard to pay for college as it is,” she said. “It might be a moderate increase now, but I think it’s going to go up and up.”

But administrators said they understand the concerns of students and parents, but this tuition raise is necessary.

The increase is because a $4 million increase in utility bills and a $7 million increase in health insurance costs. Aside from raising tuition, McRobbie is authorizing spending and travel restraints on the University and administrators will not receive a salary raise.

“It’s important to think of undergraduate education as an investment to your future,” Theobald said. “It’s not easy to come up with the funds, but there’s nothing we can do to not pay these costs. Everyone is sharing the burden.”

The IU board of trustees will make a final decision on the cost of tuition during a meeting July 16. The board’s finance and audit committees will look at repair costs and future projections before next week’s meeting.

During the meeting, members of the public will be allowed to ask questions followed by a motion and a vote.

“It’s more than likely they will accept the recommendation, but it’s not certain,” Cast said. “Much of the work of doing the projections over many months has already been done.”

IU’s tuition hike mirrors other Big Ten institutions.

The University of Illinois confirmed a 2.6 percent tuition increase for incoming students. That is an increase of $121 per semester totaling $4,742 at the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Michigan State University students will see a 10.1 percent increase during the next two years, with a 5.2 percent increase in the fall, raising tuition by $540.

Purdue is proposing a 5 percent increase, or $388, for in-state students and a 6 percent increase, or $1,394, for out-of-state students for the next two years. In-state students will pay $8,138, and first-time out-of-state students will pay $25,118 while returning students will pay $24,618.

Ohio State University does not plan to increase tuition for Ohio residents in the 2009-10 academic year.

“All over the United States the burden has fallen on the university and not on the state,” Cast said. “A few decades ago, more than half the funding for the University was paid for by the state.”