Rising rates for tuition and mandatory fees at University of Arkansas System schools reflect a change in who's paying for college, University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt told trustees on Wednesday.
"What you're seeing over this decade is that the burden of the cost of higher education has been shifting, somewhat by institution, from a state responsibility to a student and family responsibility," Bobbitt said.
A University of Arkansas board of trustees committee on Wednesday approved combined increases of 5% or more in the cost of tuition and required fees at three universities and two community colleges.
Data presented to trustees showed that across the UA System, tuition is set to increase by an average of 4%.
But the picture is mixed for the UA System's five four-year universities and seven community colleges, as combined tuition and required fees are set to increase less than 1% at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and not change at all for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which is the second-largest school in the UA System.
State funding for higher education has not decreased in Arkansas, Bobbitt said.
He said there have been yearly increases of about 0.8% in state general revenue funding over the last 10 years.
Bobbitt said that when the rising costs of higher education are considered, however, funding is not to the "point at the state level that would compensate for the decrease that you see in erosion of purchasing power."
"High inflation" is affecting "all of our employees," Bobbitt said.
Along with tuition proposals, UA System trustees are also considering fiscal year budgets for the colleges and universities.
The board of trustees began their two-day meeting Wednesday. The governor-appointed trustees board is meeting at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.
Bobbitt said that top administrators for campuses in the UA System have been asked -- "if their budgets can support it" -- to offer employees raises to their base salaries.
He said that universities and colleges may have "uncertainty with enrollments this fall," noting that enrollment across the UA System has fallen by about 7.7% "over the past couple of years."
Bobbitt noted that rates for tuition and fees "really are reflective of local conditions" at the different schools.
He noted that the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, for example, is losing tax support. Voters in Sebastian County rejected an extension of a 0.25% county sales tax benefiting the university.
In a statement to the Democrat-Gazette, Carey Tucker, UA-Fort Smith's vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the tax brought in about $6 million yearly for the university.
Mandatory fees for UAFS are proposed to increase by 23.8%, with Tucker stating that a previously non-mandatory "online fee" is changing to a required "instructional support fee" given "the need for and expectation of advanced technology in all classrooms."
Cliff Gibson, a Monticello attorney and chairman of the UA System trustees board, spoke about the lack of state funding increases.
"This has bothered me for a long time. State funding has been basically frozen in time in the year 2008," Gibson said.
Gibson asked Bobbitt what percentage of the cost of running a college is coming from state support.
"It varies by institution, but from a low of probably under 20% to certainly no more than 50%," Bobbitt replied.
"You've got to pay for what you buy and how you put on an education. And when you do you have to increase tuition to pay the freight," Gibson said.