ASUI President Max Cowan said he is grateful the Idaho State Board of Education was conscious of the impact rising tuition has on students and their ability to continue their education when they made the decision to limit the tuition increases to 4 percent for the 2014-2015 academic year.
He said the decision will cause UI to re-evaluate expenses, as the proposed increase addressed essential budget materials.
“It makes it difficult that the state board approved 4 percent, in some ways,” Cowan said. “We will be having some conversations about how we are going to bring university expenses into alignment with the new projected revenue.”
The SBOE approved a 4 percent increase to in-state undergraduate tuition and fees, and a 3.5 percent increase to out-of-state tuition and fees for 2014-2015 Wednesday.
In a statement released by the board, the SBOE focused on holding overall tuition increases to not more than 4 percent. SBOE President Don Soltman said the board recognizes how difficult it is for students to bear the cost of public higher education. He said in keeping with the Idaho Education Task Force’s goal that 60 percent of Idahoans attain a postsecondary degree by 2020, the board must ensure that higher education is affordable.
The approved in-state tuition increase is below the 4.7 percent increase proposed by UI administrators, and will cut approximately $1.3 million in anticipated revenue from next year’s budget — assuming enrollment rates stay constant.
The approved increases would raise annual in-state and out-of-state tuition to $6,784 and $13,530, respectively.
The SBOE approved the increase by a 5-2 vote, with Chairman Don Soltman and Secretary Rod Lewis both voting against the tuition increase.
UI President Chuck Staben said UI will face a total financial challenge of $9.1 million in 2014-2015 — the basis for the 4.7 percent proposal, Most of that challenge comes from $6 million of annually recurring costs, including a $2.2 million Change-in-Employee-Compensation, increased medical benefits for employees and required increases such as utilities and contracts.
Staben said a large amount of the increase will fund recurring budget items, including utility bills, research library fees and rising employee salaries.
Staben said a tuition increase is needed to partially fund the Change-in-Employee Compensation as UI faculty are currently paid 84 percent of the market value for their position. He said the increase will allow UI to continue as a nationally ranked research university that has the resources to hire and retain top-notch research professors.
“Most of our peers are increasing faculty salaries at 3 to 4 percent per year, if we increase by 2 percent a year we would continue to fall, we simply won’t fall as fast,” Staben said.
Cowan said ASUI kept the increase to the student activity fee low to allow more of the tuition increase to generate funds in the general education budget, which is more flexible and can be used to address larger university problems.
“You can accomplish a lot more, and you can see some of these bigger issues addressed,” Cowan said.
Staben said the balance between providing affordable education and maintaining the quality of a university is like walking a tight rope, and that the proposed increase was a suitable compromise between maintaining the quality of education and increasing the financial burden to students.
It is unclear, at this point, where UI administrators will look in the budget to make up the difference in revenue from the proposed increase and the State Board approved increase.
Staben said UI gives a large amount of financial aid to resident and non-resident students. Although tuition has gone up at UI, he said, so has the amount of financial aid given to students.
“Our annual amount of aid has increased 33 percent over that same five-year period, which is actually exactly the same as our tuition has increased,” Staben said.
Staben said UI has a long history of high tuition discount rates to make access to higher education more affordable. He said the current tuition discount percentage is at 32 percent.
“That 32 percent is rather high for a public (university), that’s more typical of what you would see in a private university that has a very high sticker price,” Staben said.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]