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Penn State University Trustees Raise Student Tuition By 5.9 Percent

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 12:01 CDT

Jul. 16--MEDIA -- In-state students at Penn State's University Park campus will have to find $11,024 to pay tuition for the upcoming school year -- $616 more than last year.

The university's board of trustees approved a 5.9 percent tuition increase along with a $3.04 billion budget Friday during its meeting at Penn State Delaware County. Spending in the budget will increase 6.6 percent over the $2.85 billion budget for 2004-05.

President Graham Spanier said the rising cost of health benefits, lower appropriations from the state in the past few years, pressures on insurance rates and technology expenses were some of the reasons behind the rising cost of running the university, which outpaces inflation.

"The inflationary forces operating on higher education go well beyond 2 or 3 percent," Spanier said after the meeting.

This year, Penn State received $323.6 million in state funding, a 2 percent increase over what it got last year.

The tuition increase is the smallest increase in six years. "I feel we made some tough decisions in the budget to keep it at that level," Spanier said.

The $11,024 tuition is what lower-division, in-state students will pay. Tuition for out-of-state students will go up 4.5 percent. Students' information technology fees also will increase $15 a semester.

"Even though it's our lowest tuition increase in many years, I would like to find a way to slow down tuition increases," Spanier said. "It's not in our students' best interests and it's not in Penn State's long-term best interest."

Spanier emphasized the decline in state funding over time as a percentage of Penn State's budget, saying the most troubling part is that it shifts more of the burden to students and their parents. Tuition and student fees cover the costs of about 70 percent of the university's educational funds.

Within the state appropriations, the university received $23 million for agricultural research and $27.8 million for agricultural extension services, the same amounts it received for those programs last year. The university plans to cut personnel and program expenses by $492,000 and transfer $462,000 from its education and general funding from the state to cover the rising costs of the programs.

Similarly with cooperative extension, the university will cut costs by $624,000 and transfer $556,000 to pay for the rising costs of salaries and benefits, according to the information presented to the trustees.

Spanier said the state has come to depend on the university for such services without understanding that they require financial support.

The budget transfer allowed the university to shift state money to pay for the costs, but that may not be possible in the future, Spanier said.

"Students and their families don't want their tuition to support the outreach mission of the university," he said.

The trustees also received an update on the Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

The Carlisle-based law school and Penn State reached an agreement that allows for a second law school campus at University Park.

Spanier said the administration expects to come to the trustees' September meeting with a recommendation for an architect. The university plans to build a new facility at University Park and upgrade the Carlisle facility. Spanier said faculty hiring is underway and discussions have begun with faculty and staff at the Carlisle campus about where they would like to be located.

The agreement also eliminates Dickinson's board of governors.

Three members of the board challenged the agreement unsuccessfully in court. The university's attorney Wendell Courtney said the plaintiffs in that suit filed a motion for post-trial relief. In effect, that motion asks the judge to find that his previous decision was incorrect.

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Source: Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)

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