Tuition committee proposes increases of nearly 4 percent for next two years

A committee of students and administrators sent recommendations to President William Powers Tuesday proposing that the University increase tuition by just under 4 percent per year over the next two years.

That translates to about $240 more in tuition each semester for UT undergraduates.

The Tuition Policy Advisory Committee, which is composed of four student leaders and five administrators, made its annual recommendations after three months of weekly meetings and discussions. The committee will host two open forums on its proposals Jan. 20 and Jan. 26 before Powers makes his recommendations to the UT System Board of Regents Jan. 31.

Committee members said the recommended increases struck a balance between funding UT’s growth and maintaining affordability.

Including a $65 per semester fee for the construction of the new Student Activities Center, the average tuition for Texas-resident undergraduates would increase from $4,468 to $4,709 next year. In 2011-12, tuition would cost $4,895. Resident graduate students, who now on average pay $3,882, would pay $4,100 next year and $4,262 in 2011-12.

Using the committee’s recommendation, Powers develops his own tuition recommendation and presents it to the board of regents, which is responsible for setting tuition.

According to the committee’s report, without a tuition increase, the University would face budget shortfalls of more than $17 million in 2010-11 and $14 million the following year. And the increases will not generate new funds to pursue Power’s goals of hiring top faculty and graduate students and retaining current employees.

Limited growth in state support and declining payouts from the Available University Fund Endowment led to the shortfalls in the projected budget.

“The [increase] merely cuts the deficit back to about zero,” said Kevin Hegarty, a committee co-chair and UT vice Ppresident and chief financial officer.

Meaning that even after the tuition increase, the University will have to continue making reallocations within the budget to pay for Powers’s priorities.

“Without the increase, students are already feeling the impact of the economic situation, [including] fewer classes being offered,” said Lauren Ratliff, Senate of College Councils president and a committee member. “Even with the increase, we’re going to lose quality, academic programs and student services.”

A tuition increase of nearly 18 percent per year over the next two years would be required to fund the University’s critical priorities without making cuts in other areas of the budget, according to the recommendations.

Along with co-chairs Hegarty and Provost Steven Leslie, Douglas Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts, Victoria Rodriguez, vice provost and dean of graduate studies, and Pauline Strong, chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Budgets, sit on the committee.

Four of the nine committee members are students: Ratliff; Liam O’Rourke, Student Government president; Daniel Spikes, president of the Graduate Student Assembly; and government senior Cecilia Lopez, a student representative at large.

O’Rourke said if tuition is not increased modestly, there will be negative ramifications for the quality of education at UT.

“As a student who pays his way through and is on financial aid, I’d rather pay a little more for good teachers, classes and services,” O’Rourke said. “We aren’t getting funded adequately from the state. Higher education is not a priority for the state Legislature, and if they don’t fund higher education, then the money has to come from somewhere.”

Some students said there should be other alternatives than tuition increases to remedy the budget deficit.

Perla Carrasco, president of the Hispanic Student Association, said she thinks the tuition increase could depress minority enrollment at UT because many minorities already face financial obstacles paying for tuition.

“Tuition is a little too overpriced for what resources are available to students,” Carrasco, a communication studies senior, said. “I think if it increases even more and the economy stays the same, a lot of students will have more problems trying to come up with the money they need to pay for tuition.”

Last spring, University Democrats and College Republicans joined to urge a reversal of tuition de-regulation at the Capitol, which would have meant the Legislature taking back tuition-setting powers from university regents. The regents already cap year-to-year tuition increases at 4.95 percent.

TPAC will post the recommendations report on their Web site for students to view before the University-wide forums in January. The site will also be equipped for public feedback.

TPAC will present its recommendations to the Senate of College Councils at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Glenn Maloney Room, Room G1.310A, of the Student Services Building. The committee will hold University-wide forums at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 and at 1 p.m. on Jan. 26.

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