University of Illinois to Seek Tuition Hike

By Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune

Apr. 7–The University of Illinois is proposing a tuition increase of 9.5 percent for incoming freshmen, a move officials said would allow them to restore teachers and courses cut during an earlier budget crunch.

The proposed increase will be voted on Tuesday by the university’s board of trustees.

It would raise the annual tuition to $7,708 for new freshmen at Urbana-Champaign and $6,780 at the university’s Chicago campus, a total increase of about $600 for fall and spring semesters.

Students attending the university’s Springfield campus would pay an annual tuition of $5,580, an increase of about $1,000 for the two semesters.

Because of a state law that went into effect in 2004, tuition for incoming students is fixed over four years of study. Officials say the proposed increase, if spread over that time, would be about equal to the current rate of inflation.

Students already in school when the law was signed are not covered by the legislation. Under the plan, juniors and seniors in the University of Illinois system would face separate, but smaller, tuition increases, said system spokesman Thomas Hardy.

The trustees will also be asked to approve increases in mandatory student fees and room-and-board costs at all three campuses. And they’ll be asked to approve a special fee that would go toward addressing the building-maintenance backlog at the campuses.

“We’re trying to get back to where we were,” Hardy said Thursday.

The tuition increase would generate an extra $27.4 million, tentatively earmarked for 375 additional course sections and more than 200 new teachers, Hardy said. The system had to cut both in the 2003 and 2004 school years, he said.

“This is primarily an inflation-based tuition package that provides budget predictability for our incoming students and their families,” President B. Joseph White said in a statement issued by the university.

“I personally would rather pay 100 or 200 or 300 extra dollars rather than have my university degrade so much in quality of education,” said junior Amanda Palazzo, 21, a budget committee member.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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