IU recommends raising tuition, fees by 5.5 percent

IU Bloomington students are going to have to pay two percent more for their tuition than was recommended by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

IU President Michael McRobbie announced today that he will recommend resident students pay 5.5 percent more for tuition and fees for the 2011-12 academic year.

This includes a temporary fee that would help cover the cost of repair and maintenance work for IU's 900 buildings and associated infrastructure across all campuses.

The fees are included because the most recent state budget that was passed by the Indiana General Assembly no longer includes funding for repair and maintenance needs for public universities for the first time in about 10 years.

Due to this fact, McRobbie said IU doesn't have a choice but to install a temporary fee to pay for critical maintenance needs that cannot be put off any longer.

"Many buildings are very old, some over 100 years old, and we must make significant investments in repair and maintenance projects to ensure their continued use," McRobbie said in a press release.

IU has to deal with a backlog of more than $600 million in repair and maintenance projects on many of its campuses across the state, according to a press release.

McRobbie recommended a temporary repair and maintenance fee of $180 per full-time student at IU-Bloomington during the 2011-12 academic year and $360 during the next year.

McRobbie noted that many other colleges and universities across the nation are already charging extra fees for repair and maintenance.

For the 2011-12 academic year, these fees plus the recommended 3.5 percent tuition increase are equal to a total of a 5.5 percent increase for resident students and 6.7 percent increase for nonresident students.

"Other buildings the state has invested at IU also contain expensive and highly complex laboratory and research equipment. We have a responsibility to protect these investments," McRobbie said.

For the 2012-13 academic year, the rate of increase will be 5.4 percent for resident students and 6.6 percent for nonresident students.

"We simply cannot ignore the work that is necessary to keep our buildings safe and in good repair," McRobbie said.

The IU Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 31 in the IUPUI Campus Center, room 450A in Indianapolis.

Members of the public attending the meeting will be able to ask questions or make comments. They will only be given three minutes to speak to the Board.

The public will also be able to view the hearing live on the Internet at http://broadcast.iu.edu.

The public can also address the Board by sending emails during the hearing. The email address to submit questions or comments is tuition@indiana.edu.

After the hearing, the trustees will convene at 9 a.m. in the same place to consider approval of the proposed tuition and fee rates.

— Brooke Lillard