Each year, student fees and tuition increase at universities across the nation. The question is not if fees and tuition will increase, but by how much.
ASUI’s audit of student fees led University of Idaho President M. Duane Nellis to propose a lower percent tuition increase than previous years.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect this year. It’s a smaller increase than we’ve had in a long time,” said Samantha Perez, ASUI president. “We really did our part to keep tuition and fees down this year.”
The proposed 6.1 percent increase to full-time fees for in-state students is more than 2 percent lower than the increase students saw in the 2011-2012 academic year. Perez proposed a zero percent increase to the student activity fee which helped keep the overall proposed increase of tuition and fees low.
Perez said reallocation of student activity fee dollars allowed her to recommend a zero percent increase to the fee. “We’re pretty lucky,” Perez said. “Right across the border WSU is having back-to-back 16 percent increases. We’re lucky that we’re significantly lower than our neighbors. I know Utah State is coming in at 7.1 percent … so we’re always lower than our peers which is good.”
After a joint-resolution passed in the Idaho legislature last fall, the amount students pay each year is now divided into full-time tuition and student fees. This division did not impact the amount students pay each year, but allows the university to use the money for a variety of programs across campus.
“The student activity fee goes to those specific departments, like the Women’s Center,” Perez said. “Tuition though can go to anything — it can go to buildings, it can go to salary, it can go to different programs that we fund too, like the Counseling and Testing Center.”
In-state students paid $3,874.18 in full-time tuition, $790.50 in facilities fees, $125.40 for computer and network fees, and $1,065.92 in dedicated student activity fees for the current academic year. The only proposed increase for the 2012-2013 year applies to full-time tuition.
“Before we had the matriculation fee and the university was restricted on what the money could be used for. Now we pay tuition and that money is much more flexible for the university,” Perez said. “I think there’s things that are going to be funded by the 6.1 percent increase that are very good things. The first one is Change in Employee Compensation.”
Perez said it’s important that the university is fairly compensating its faculty and staff in order to increase retention of experienced people in the positions that directly affect student life.
“If we can retain better people we’re going to have better teachers and better researchers and that will rub off on the student,” Perez said. “Those are the people that are directly impacting student life. It’s important that we retain those people.”
Perez said the State Board of Education proposed a 2 percent increase in CEC funding, but only 60 percent of that increase will be funded by the state. The other 40 percent has to be funded by the university, Perez said.
Perez said she encourages students to attend the student fee open forum hosted by ASUI and the UI budget office to learn more and ask questions about the increase and student fees.
“(Students) should know where their money is going,” Perez said.
UI Provost for Academic Affairs Doug Baker and Keith Ickes, director of the Planning and Budget Office, will present Nellis’ proposed increase. Perez will present the student activity fee.