The Tuition Review Advisory Committee met to discuss possible scenarios for a 2008 to 2009 tuition increase Tuesday morning.
Provost Larry Nielsen outlined six options he and Student Body President Bobby Mills had calculated for Campus-Initiated Tuition Increases, including the possibility for a blanket 6.5 percent increase to every student’s tuition.
“Bobby suggested, ‘what if we do a 6.5-percent increase for all students?'” Nielsen said.
The across-the-board raise would cost in-state undergraduate students $240; in-state graduate students $275; and out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students just more than $1,000 per year.
Some members raised concerns about the emphasis this plan would have on out-of-state enrollment numbers.
According to Nielsen, the 6.5 percent would have a negative impact and deter non-resident applicants from the University.
The scenario was dismissed along with scenario two — $240 increase for in-state undergraduates and $480 for other students; scenario three — a $240 increase for undergrads only; and scenario five — $240 raise in in-state undergraduate tuition and a 6.5-percent increase for nonresident undergraduates.
The first scenario called for uniform increases of $240, but several members of the task force were hesitant about applying tuition increases to graduate students for various reasons.
“I realized increasing graduate student tuition is actually costing us money,” Nielsen said.
He explained that due to subsidies the University provides to many graduate students, it would be like moving money “from the left pocket to the right pocket.”
Other members were also concerned about a graduate student CITI after this year’s drop in admissions to doctoral programs.
Nielsen agreed that there needed to be investments in the graduate program.
“We can send the message that we’re trying to foster the graduate school,” he said.
Scott Lassiter, student senator and chair of the Senate Tuition and Fees Committee, said in-state undergraduate students should be the task force’s greatest concern.
“Our first allegiance should be to in-state students,” Lassiter, a sophomore in political science, said.
Nielsen added that about 90 percent of full-time students come from within the state.
Mills, a junior in economics and political science, shared similar sentiments about the task force’s focus.
“I’m kind of between [scenario] one and [scenario] six,” he said. “The legislature wants in- and out-of-state to be different.”
If the task force voted for an option where in-state students received a smaller increase than out-of-state students, the General Assembly would be more open to the CITI, according to Mills.
In a motion to choose a scenario to be discussed and voted on at the Tuition Task Force meeting Oct. 5, the group chose scenario six, a $240 increase for in-state undergraduates and double that for non-resident undergraduates, in a 12-2 vote over scenario four.
The preferred scenario does not contain any plans for raising graduate student tuition; it provides roughly $3 million in financial aid. It also allocates almost $1.4 million to campus quality and accessibility improvements.
