Tuition rises, affects students’ pocketbooks
Tuition at the University of Indianapolis will increase by five percent next fall due to a state legislature decision last summer. Last years tuition increased by 3.2 percent from the preceding year.
Tuition for the 2009-2010 school year stood at $20,970, with room and board (including the 14-meal plan) at $7,610. Next year tuition will be $22,020 and the same room and board plan will be $7,990.
The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees decided to increase tuition rates for the 2010-2011 school year to build a budget with more money in financial aid for grants and scholarships that can be redistributed to students to help make up for the loss in state assistance funding. The extra tuition dollars will also be used for the day-to-day maintenance of the university.
This reduction in state assistance funding occurred after the state legislature passed a 6.5 percent increase in student assistance funding last summer, when the Indiana Commission for Higher Education recommended an 18 percent increase to maintain the caps on the Higher Education Award and Frank O’Bannon Freedom of Choice Award at levels similar to the preceding year. These grants are provided by the State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana (SSACI). Because of the lowered caps, the amount an individual could receive from SSACI grants was reduced from $10,992 to $7,584.
“SSACI money, which is financial aid money from the state, was reduced by $3,000 per student last year, and we have 1100 students who are SSACI recipients,” said President Beverley Pitts. “The university moved its own budget money into a fund to be able to make up that difference. We can’t continue to do that because we didn’t give faculty salary increases. We also need the resources to run the university—chemicals for science labs, equipment that needs to be replaced and so on. In spite of the fact that there is an economic downturn, the cost of the university didn’t decrease.”
Many items in the budget had to be cut to implement the UIndy replacement fund last year, including salary increases for faculty and staff. Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Mark Weigand is hopeful that salaries next year will include an annual increase, although that is not certain.
“The five percent increase in tuition allows us to budget the nearly $3 million SSACI replacement fund in next year’s budget and still maintain operating budgets at levels that ensure quality programs and infrastructure,” Weigand said. “We’re hopeful that if enrollment holds, there will be a salary increase for faculty and staff.”
According to Weigand, the SSACI award amount, however, may change slightly, depending on the number of students who use the Higher Education and Frank O’Bannon Freedom of Choice awards. If the number of students does not change from last year to this year, however, the award amounts will stay about the same.
As the university continues its five-year-strategic plan to renovate and expand different aspects of campus, many students may wonder why tuition is going up when the university has money for projects such as the student athletic recreation center.
“The money for the student athletic recreation center was part of a bond issue that we took out about two years ago,” Weigand said. “A tax exempt bond issue covered the addition to Schwitzer, the remodeling of the dining facilities and the new residence hall. East Hall is paying for itself with the students who live there. We also included in that bond issue the student athletic recreation center. Once you earmark money for a bond issue it has to be [used] for certain things. We are restricted to use that money for the student athletic recreation center. No tuition money is going toward that building.”
According to Pitts, the tuition increase will add between $2.5 million to $3 million dollars to financial aid, assuming that this years enrollment will be similar to last years.
Tuition continues to climb year over year. It’s so sad, and what makes it worse is that a fair percentage of students who do graduate find out they really don’t like their chosen professions. I just hope there is a greater emphasis on Career Training in Indianapolis and communities around the state, so every dollar spend on education is a dollar truly invested.
We have long since passed the point where the money spent on higher education bears any rational relationship to the return it provides. While I was growing up I was inundated with the mantra that everyone needed to attend college and, very likely, some sort of graduate school. So, I borrowed a bunch of money for college and law school, got out in the real world and started representing clients, and discovered that…college really has nothing to do with success. The most successful clients I know either have no college education or dropped out early on, and it hasn’t held them back any. And I have no shortage of friends who have excellent, $200k plus educations and have been out of work for the better part of a year.
College is good for some people, and the advancement of knowledge for knowledge’s sake is a noble endeavor. That doesn’t mean that everyone should engage in it, or that society is somehow better off if they do.