LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas System’s four-year campuses plan to raise student tuition and fees between 3.21 percent and 5.28 percent for the 2012-13 academic year.
The system’s five community colleges plan similar cost increases of between 1.94 percent and 3.67 percent.
The UA board of trustees will consider the proposals Friday at the system offices in Little Rock.
“It’s imperative that we keep tuition increases low, and I believe our campuses have done that with these proposals,” UA System President Donald Bobbitt said in a statement. “But we must address certain areas such as faculty pay to remain competitive and continue to provide a quality education to our students.”
The growth of student enrollment continues to outpace the growth of state appropriations, giving campus leaders little choice but to increase the rates that students pay, they said.
The Arkansas Legislature approved “modest increases” of state appropriations for only some colleges and universities for fiscal 2013, which starts July 1.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville - the state’s largest university - proposed the largest rate of increase in tuition and fees at 5.28 percent.
Under UA-Fayetteville’s proposal, costs for a full-time, in-state student taking 15 credit hours each semester would increase from $7,174 to $7,553 for an entire year, the highest in the UA System. Those costs vary slightly depending on major, and they do not include housing or meals.
“Every year we’re confronted with this question of tuition increases,” UA-Fayetteville Chancellor G. David Gearhart said. “It’s probably the most difficult thing that we do.”
The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith proposed the smallest increase, a 3.21 percent bump that would bring total costs for a student taking 15 credit hours each semester to $5,436 for an entire year - the lowest for a four-year campus in the UA System.
The proposal would raise tuition and fees by 4.3 percent at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, bringing total yearly costs to $7,343.
At the University of Arkansas at Monticello, tuition and fees would increase by 5.1 percent, bringing yearly costs to $5,560.
The proposal would raise tuition and fees by 3.5 percent at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, bringing costs there to $5,517 per year.
The UA System’s proposed increases for the 2012-13 academic year fall below last year’s increases of 5.9 to 7.1 percent, which were higher than recent years.
‘CRITICAL AREAS’
“Any increase of tuition is not good,” said Cyrene Quiamco, a member of the UALR Student Government Association, who said she would be “curious where the funds will be allocated.”
Bobbitt said chancellors consulted with students, faculty and staff committees before finalizing proposals.
New revenue generated by the increase will cover “critical areas” such as rising utility costs, technology upgrades, facility maintenance, increased employee-benefit costs and some small increases in faculty salaries, he said. Many faculty members have gone without raises for several years as colleges and universities worked to hold costs down.
Full-time faculty at Arkansas public universities earned an average salary of $59,800 in 2010, according to the most recent data available from the Southern Regional Education Board. That salary is lower than those of the 15 other states tracked by the organization and is well below the national average of $77,000.
Lower compensation threatens Arkansas’ ability to attract talented faculty and researchers, chancellors said. Many contacted Monday said they planned to include cost-of-living adjustments or merit-pay increases of about 2 percent for professors and instructors.
“We hope to do something for at least some of them,” UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson said.
Chancellors also said they hoped to absorb the cost of higher insurance premiums so that employees won’t have to juggle another out-of-pocket expense increase.
At UA-Monticello, total premiums are expected to increase about 10 percent next year, Chancellor Jack Lassiter said.
STATE SUPPORT
University leaders said limited growth in state appropriations in recent years has caused them to turn to students to help cover critical campus costs.
In past years, state appropriations represented as much revenue for campuses as that collected from student tuition and fees, but that is changing. Some UA campuses now collect less revenue from the state than they do from students.
“That’s kind of a sad threshold to pass,” Anderson said.
Four-year universities in the UA System received an average of $7,019 per student in state appropriations in 2008-09, a figure system leaders expect to fall to about $6,100 per student once enrollment figures are finalized for 2011-12.
That trend is consistent with other states, according to a recent report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
“The depth and breadth of the 2008 recession and the challenges of financing health care and retirement costs for an aging population leave little room for hope that the trend can easily be reversed,” the report said.
Arkansas lawmakers approved total general-revenue budget of about $730 million for Arkansas public higher-education institutions for the 2012-13 academic year.
That budget included a $3.63 million increase to be distributed among the colleges and universities that have the lowest percentage of their state appropriation needs covered, including UA campuses in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Little Rock.
Those needs are determined by a state formula. It would have taken a $64 million state funding increase to cover bring all institutions up to 75 percent of their formula-calculated need, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education said.
Gov. Mike Beebe sees it as “understandable” that some institutions would raise rates in light of a tight state budget, spokesman Matt DeCample said. But Beebe has urged campus leaders to be “transparent” about how that money will be spent.
Gearhart said he appreciated the state’s “recognition” of UA’s financial need.
“Raising tuition is always an act of last resort,” he said. “We’d like to be able to not have to do it at all.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/27/2012