Trustees approve 09-10 budget, freeze IU salaries

The IU board of trustees approved the budget for the 2009-10 academic year that will raise tuition for all students.

In response to not receiving an increase in state funding and trying to balance in federal stimulus dollars, the University is tightening its belt for students and faculty, including implementing a salary freeze.

“The world, the nation and Indiana University are facing economic premises we haven’t felt since the Great Depression,” said IU President Michael McRobbie on Thursday at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. “The cuts to IU’s budget have been softened by the
federal stimulus budget, but it’s important to remember that this is temporary.”

For the 2009-10 academic year, in-state tuition will rise by 4.6 percent and out-of-state tuition by 5.6 percent. The University approved a 4.8 percent increase for in-state undergraduates in 2010-11 and a 5.8 percent increase for out-of-state students.

The University is stressing the amount of financial aid it is providing to help offset the cost of tuition. Because of $200 million collected by individual donors as part of the matching the promise campaign, in-state undergraduate tuition should seem to cost 15 percent less.

The University has also collected more than $100 million for graduate fellowships, said Neil Theobald, vice president and chief financial officer, during Thursday’s board meeting.

However, IUPUI graduate student Jodie Atkinson said it’s not fair to provide financial aid for in-state students, but increase the cost for out-of-state and graduate students.
“The graduate and professional students are bearing the brunt,” Atkinson said. “We don’t get the amount of financial aid undergraduates do. Graduate students are what helps propel the University with our research. Though everyone is talking about undergraduate fees going up, graduates are the ones who have to pay for it.”

Atkinson was the only student present to give her two cents at Thursday’s meeting. She’s a sociology major, and she plans on teaching after graduation.

Graduate tuition rates will vary from campus to campus, but students in Bloomington will see increases, including the Maurer School of Law’s in-state tuition increase of 24.5 and 8.1 percent in 2009-10 and 2010-11, respectively. The Kelley School of Business in-state tuition will increase by 15.4 and 11 percent in the next two years, respectively.

However, Theobald said IU chose to raise out-of-state and graduate student tuition first because the Indiana

Commission for Higher Education recommended the University do so.

The commission gave IU six recommendations: consider the economic environment at each campus, customize tuition increases at different campuses, provide the lowest tuition to the lowest income students, not raise employee salaries, limit tuition increases to 5 percent for in-state students, and increase financial aid by 50 percent.
IU agreed with all six recommendations.

“There isn’t a facet we didn’t look at that wouldn’t save costs for our students,” Talbot said. “For out-of-state and graduate students, it looks like we are giving them the outer hand, but we are still delivering them with one of the best educations. If you look at the numbers, all in-state, out-of-state and graduate students have to stretch.”

In addition to a faculty salary freeze, the University will implement a 50 percent reduction in travel funds and restrictions on nonacademic hiring.

However, the University plans to hire an additional 129 faculty members, 61 working for IU-Bloomington with the other 68 distributed among IU’s seven other campuses.

“Law and business school faculty are very expensive to keep,” Theobald said. “In order to be competitive and offer this education, we have to be able to provide this faculty.”
In addition, McRobbie announced that Thomas Morrison, IU’s current associate vice president for public affairs and state relations, will be filling the newly created position of vice president for capital projects and facilities.

McRobbie said IU plans to invest $200 million in new infrastructure.

Responsibility for the construction, renovation and repair of buildings will be on Morrison’s shoulders. He will also oversee the acquisition of real estate, facilities programming and maintenance and sustainability initiatives.

“Even though we’re in a downturn in the economy, we still have a number of capital projects that will move the University forward,” Morrison said. “The president has outlined a plan that allows us to move forward aggressively.”