The UT System continued to refine its vision for tuition deregulation during Thursday's Board of Regents meeting.
Chancellor Mark Yudof said he was grateful for the support that Gov. Rick Perry voiced in his State of the State Address Tuesday.
"I thought the governor had a really fine grasp," Yudof said. "He wants the Board of Regents … whom he chooses, to make decisions."
Yudof said that tuition deregulation and the Texas Compact would enroll more underrepresented students and increase graduation rates in a shorter length of time, while holding the board to a more direct level of accountability.
"It's hard to hold people accountable when you can't work toward [the needs of Texas]," Yudof said. "We live in a regulatory environment where the board is not free to do that."
The Texas Compact is a package of grants and scholarships equal to tuition and required fees that the System would guarantee to students categorized as less than or equal to the median household income for Texas. That median income for Texas is $40,860, according to the 2001 Census.
The funds offered by the Texas Compact would come from UT System institutions. First-year costs for the program will amount to between $10 million and $11 million; subsequent year costs range from $15 million to $25 million per year, according to Teresa Sullivan, System executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Sullivan said that the Texas Compact would help meet state goals to enroll more students, particularly Hispanic students, in Texas colleges and universities. The chief barrier to enrollment was that families overestimated the cost of a college education by three times the actual cost, she said. However, the compact would encourage large portions of the Texas population to consider higher education as an option.
"By guaranteeing every family below the median income that their tuition and fees would be covered, we reduce a lot of the uncertainty," Sullivan said.
Regent Cyndi Taylor Krier raised concerns that nontraditional students would be excluded from the compact due to a required minimum course load of 12 hours per semester.
"I hear us saying we're going to listen to other needs, but the written materials seem to be more directed to the traditional student," Krier said.
While the compact would not accommodate students who could not meet the 12 hour and 2.5 GPA requirements, Krier said she appreciated the possibility that other options, like additional programs, could be created if the board is granted deregulation.
The discussions over deregulation and the Texas Compact left many unanswered questions for Student Government President Katie King.
"When they said [the Texas Compact] would cost $25 million a year in the long run, no one asked where the money was coming from," King said.
In anticipation of deregulation, Student Government is leading a System-wide effort to place a student regent on the board. King said bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, and there is a petition drive on all the UT campuses.
"New people are supporting it every day," King said.
Four UT students attempted to protest the meeting because they were denied the right to address the board. The students attended the meeting without incident.
"I think we're protesting by just being here," said Nic Schwellenbach, a history senior and UT Watch member.
Austin Van Zant, a French junior and UT Watch member, said he was disappointed that he was prevented from protesting but benefited from attending the meeting.
"I think coming out of this meeting I have a better understanding of where the board and Chancellor Yudof are coming from - I think a lot worse of it [deregulation] now," Van Zant said.
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