Penn State Seeks 9.5 Percent Funding Hike
By Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Feb. 23–HARRISBURG — Penn State University could freeze tuition at most of its 24 campuses next year if the state increases its funding by 9.5 percent or $30.9 million, President Graham B. Spanier told the House Appropriations Committee yesterday.
That’s unlikely, though.
Gov. Ed Rendell is proposing a 3.3 percent increase, bringing state funding to $322.4 million, up from $312 million this year.
Legislators provided little encouragement they would provide much more than what the governor has proposed. They said Dr. Spanier should cut spending instead.
Rep. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, suggested that rising tuition is the result of wasteful spending, not insufficient state funding.
“Perhaps you’re just not very good at managing tuition,” Mr. Maher said.
He pointed to the university’s two private planes and a $31 million baseball park, now under construction in University Park, that will be shared with a new minor-league baseball team.
Dr. Spanier assured legislators that spending has not been frivolous. The planes are for university-related travel, and the ballfield will be used for school athletics and classes, he said.
“We are and will continue to be as frugal as we can,” he said.
“But if you skimp,” Dr. Spanier added, “you begin to erode the quality and I don’t think anybody in the Legislature wants us to be any less of an institution than we are now.”
If the Legislature grants his funding request, Dr. Spanier says he would freeze tuition at 20 of Penn State’s 24 campuses. Tuition would not be frozen at University Park, the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Penn College in Williamsport or the College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey.
Tuition, which varies by campus and program, has more than doubled since Dr. Spanier became president in July 1995.
It stands at $11,024 for in-state freshmen and sophomores at Penn State’s main campus, up from $5,188 in Dr. Spanier’s first year. Last year, tuition at the main campus was $9,296.
In-state tuition for freshmen and sophomores at the Beaver County campus is $9,722 this year, up from $5,024 in Dr. Spanier’s first year. Last year, it was $9,180.
Penn State has 80,124 students.
Tuition accounts for 33 percent of Penn State’s $3.04 billion operating budget, while the state appropriation accounts for 10.6 percent, according to budget reports on the university’s Web site. The rest comes from restricted grants, profits from Penn State Medical Center and other sources.
With such a small percentage of the budget coming from the state, it’s unfair of Dr. Spanier to pin tuition increases on legislators, said Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District.
“It is an unfair weight to put on the General Assembly to say, ‘If you don’t do this, we’re going to raise tuition,’” he said. The board of trustees has other options, such as program cuts, he said.
The Penn State presentation was part of a lengthy series of hearings that legislators are holding on the governor’s proposed $25.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2006-07, which starts July 1.
Hearings will continue today with the budget for the University of Pittsburgh. The governor has proposed a $5.8 million increase for Pitt, bringing state funding to $163.1 million.
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