State colleges hiking tuition
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The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced the largest dollar value tuition increase in its history Thursday, partially offsetting dramatic cuts in state and federal funding for the upcoming school year.
Tuition for the 2011-12 school year will be $6,240 -- an increase of 7.5 percent, or $436, per full time, in-state student. The state system will receive more than $90 million less in state and federal funding next year than it did this year, which works out to about $802 per full-time student.
"We will not ask our students to bear the entire burden of the budget cuts we are facing," said Chancellor John C. Cavanaugh. "The tuition increase approved by the board today will fall significantly short of the funding we need to replace what we lost."
The state system also Thursday raised a technology fee paid by all students from $232 per year to $348 per year.
Nearly 120,000 students attend the 14 universities that make the state system. It will now be up to those individual campuses to make cuts or increase fees to balance their budgets.
"We're still doing calculations about exactly what this will mean," said Michelle Fryling, spokeswoman for Indiana University of Pennsylvania. "We are relieved that our students are not shouldering the entire bulk of the gap."
Where those cuts will come from remains to be seen, said Kevin Kodish, spokesman for the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties.
"It's going to be very challenging for the state system to move forward," he said. "We've set enrollment records -- it's hard to make instructional cuts when you have more and more demand."
The system has had higher percentage increases -- including a more than 15 percent increase for the 1991-92 school year -- but has never had a dollar increase more than $400 before.
First Published July 1, 2011 12:00 am
