Keith Ickes, University of Idaho executive director for planning and budget, said he is disappointed in the State Board of Education’s April 16 decision to raise in-state undergraduate tuition and fees by 4 percent — .7 percent lower than the increase proposed by UI administrators.
“We had thought we made a very compelling case,” Ickes said. “But we will move on and get things done, and do everything we possibly can with the dollars we have got.”
Ickes said UI will face a budget deficit of $300,000 next year, because of the lowered tuition increase. He said the reduced tuition increase will save every in-state UI student $46 in the upcoming year.
“I don’t know if $46 made any big difference to anybody, to be honest, it did make a little difference to us,” Ickes said.
Ickes said UI will look toward the medical benefits plan to address the $300,000 shortfall.
He said the medical benefits budget is $20 million and will be large enough to absorb the deficit, without changing medical benefits for UI employees.
“We won’t change benefits, we are not going to be changing support for employees or their medical plans,” Ickes said.
Ickes said it is easier to move funds around and find extra revenue when working with a larger budget.
The lowered tuition increase will not affect funding for the Change-in-Employee-Compensation, as it was a top priority for UI administrators, Ickes said. He said the deficit will not affect funding to mandatory budget items, including utility bills, faculty promotions and UI’s research library.
The SBOE also approved a 3.6 percent increase in out-of-state undergraduate tuition for 2014-2015.
Ickes said although the lowered tuition increase for in-state students will make it harder to plan next year’s budget, he is confident UI will be able to fund all mandatory budget items.
“I still think we can accomplish all of the major goals we were trying to do,” Ickes said.
ASUI President Max Cowan said although this year’s reduced tuition increase is a solvable problem, it is an indication of Idaho’s struggle to fund higher education. He said students see the impact of yearly budget deficits, and are concerned about maintaining the quality of their education.
Cowan said the state does not properly fund higher education, which forces students to pay higher tuition rates to preserve the quality of their university. He said the SBOE board meeting raised the topic of what role the state should have in funding higher education in Idaho.
The smaller tuition increase was approved by the SBOE by a 5-2 vote. Ickes said the only SBOE board member in vocal opposition to the lowered rate was SBOE Chairman Milford Terrell.
“His whole argument was students in Idaho, from Idaho, ought to have top quality competitive universities to go to, and his concern was that if the board, or the state or both, continued to restrain the revenue, that would not be true,” Ickes said.
Ickes said Terrell even argued that the tuition increases should be raised by 1 percent.
Ickes said UI administrators might need to re-evaluate the budget depending on how many UI students graduate in the spring. He said as more students graduate in the spring, UI will receive less tuition funds in the fall — which could have an impact on the 2014-2015 budget.
Ickes said UI reduced the total credits needed to graduate from 128 to 120 effective spring 2012, which resulted in 250 extra students graduating in spring 2013. He said the 2013 graduating class and the upcoming graduating classes were the largest UI has seen in many years, and might have an effect on next year’s budget.
Ickes said UI administrators will know how many students UI has officially graduated in June, and will be able to determine its impact on the budget at that time.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]