UI to ask for 3.5% increase for 2015-2016 tuition and fees
University of Idaho administrators will ask for the lowest tuition increase on record in recent years — just 3.5 percent for resident undergraduate tuition and fees.
The increase, which will affect tuition and fees for the 2015-2016 academic year, will be used primarily to fund salary increases for university employees as mandated by the state legislature, said UI President Chuck Staben.
“Competitiveness of employee compensation is a challenge,” Staben said. “Enrollment has not grown substantially, our tuition revenue has grown a little bit … But we will face some challenges in tuition revenue in future years unless we are able to increase our classes … so the additional revenue from this increase will really support that.”
The official tuition request has been sent to the Idaho State Board of Education, which will take action on the proposed increases from all of the state’s universities at their meeting April 15-16.
Students, faculty and staff can give feedback on the proposal prior to the SBOE meeting at a budget presentation and open forum at 3:30 p.m. April 1 in the Idaho Commons Horizon-Aurora room.
Earlier this year, Staben proposed to the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee a plan to freeze resident undergraduate tuition if they agreed to fully fund a Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) increase. JFAC will officially make their recommendation to the state regarding Staben’s proposal next week, but Staben said he doesn’t have high hopes for good news.
“I’m not optimistic that that’s going to happen,” Staben said. “I’m not the person that’s making that decision, but I don’t think that’s very likely and therefore, since we want to raise our employee salaries … we’re going to have to find the money elsewhere.”
Staben said it’s important to note that if JFAC does — unexpectedly — decide the state should fully fund CEC and benefits increases, he could ask the state board for a lower increase at the April meeting, but because the official proposal is 3.5 percent, he cannot ask for more.
A 3.5 percent tuition increase would generate an the university, he said.”Unfortunately I think we’re going to be expending those funds,” Staben said. “We do not anticipate that this will enhance the general fund or increase reserves. This is a budget that is aimed at a steady stake.”
“Unfortunately I think we’re going to be expending those funds,” Staben said. “We do not anticipate that this will enhance the general fund or increase reserves. This is a budget that is aimed at a steady stake.”
Staben said about $1.6 million of that would fund salary increases for university employees, while the rest would go toward basic university costs like maintenance, utility bills and library inflation. Library inflation, Staben said, is the rising cost to maintain the library’s current digital database — so approximately $350,000 on top of what the university already pays for library resources.
Staben said his ultimate challenge is balancing the financial needs of the university with the affordability and accessibility concerns of students and the state.
In keeping with the presidents desire to keep tuition and fees low, ASUI President Nate Fisher said he and the rest of ASUI worked hard to keep the dedicated student activity fee increase as low as possible. He said like the overall proposal, the 0.9 percent increase to fund CEC and benefits for employees in departments funded by the student activity fee.
“One of the things we really tried to prioritize was to keep the costs low for students,” Fisher said. “We wanted to continue funding programs at their current rate so they wouldn’t have cut programming. We also wanted to fund the CEC and benefits increases so those departments didn’t have to reallocate money to fund it themselves.”
Fisher said as a student he is cognisant of the fact students don’t like to see their tuition increase. As tuition has consistently gone up in recent years, he said it’s nice to see a proposed increase that’s a little lower than usual.
“This is good news for students as we continue to move forward, especially as the majority is going to CEC funding,” Fisher said.
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]