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State budget could force college tuition increase
Saturday, February 09, 2002 By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Gov. Mark Schweiker's proposed budget gives leaders of Pennsylvania's 14 state universities a hard choice: Cut campus programs or raise tuition for their 99,000 students by nearly 13 percent this fall.
That "worst case" projection, released by the State System of Higher Education yesterday, assumes that the Legislature embraces Schweiker's plan to cut university appropriations statewide by 3 to 5 percent. Other universities are facing similar dilemmas as they prepare for cuts that at some schools could be the worst in 30 years.
Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh aren't willing yet to say how much higher their tuition might be if Schweiker's budget is approved. Both have suggested their budgets will be strained.
In a state where public university prices already are third highest in the nation, any substantial increase will intensify a debate about who's to blame: the state for failing to properly fund its campuses or the schools for failing to rein in costs.
For State System students, including those at California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock, the increase could mean up to $514 a year more -- the biggest dollar increase since the system's creation in 1983.
But State System leaders would almost certainly reduce that figure by cutting programs, spokesman Kenn Marshall said.
"That's a worst-case scenario if we do nothing else. We will not raise tuition that much on students in a single year," he said. "We will almost certainly go back to our campuses and ask them to come up with additional spending cuts.
"Obviously, they would have to look at a whole range of things -- not filling positions, delaying needed maintenance projects, possibly cutting back on library purchases," he said.
State System Chancellor Judy Hample will lobby legislators to undo the governor's 3 percent cut in her system's budget when she appears before the House and Senate Appropriations committees this month.
But she and other university leaders may be preaching to legislators who aren't in a giving mood. The governor already has announced plans to tap the state's Rainy Day Fund just to balance this year's budget.
Everyone in state government faced tough budget choices, said Jeff McCloud, a spokesman for state Education Secretary Charles Zogby. Colleges at least have some funding sources that kindergarten-grade 12 schools do not.
"They obviously have paying customers. They have income that's coming in," he said. "Higher education institutions have endowments and whatnot and other sources that they could potentially tap.
"It would make more sense to cut some costs and ease up on their students," he said.
Tara Marsh, 19, a Slippery Rock sophomore from Allentown, said staying in school already is a financial balancing act for some of her classmates, and yet another price hike would only make things worse.
"I know people who have jobs where they work 25 hours a week plus go to school and take 16 to 18 credits," she said. "It's not easy."
In its budget request in October, Penn State said it envisioned a tuition increase of nearly 8 percent this fall assuming the state gave it a 4.25 percent increase in its appropriation. Instead, Schweiker's budget offers the university $318 million, a 5 percent cut.
"We won't be in a position to speculate about specific increases until we get more information," Penn State President Graham Spanier said. "There is no doubt, however, that we are looking at tuition increases that are higher than usual."
Pitt and the other two state-related universities -- Temple and Lincoln -- also would lose 5 percent of their budgets under Schweiker's plan unveiled Tuesday.
In its budget submission, Pitt said it would keep its tuition increase to not more than 4 percent if it got an appropriation increase.
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