BSU considers $388 million general fund budget for 2018-19, a $16 million increase

Fifty-five percent of the budget, or $215 million, would be funded by student tuition and fees, with a general appropriation from the state making up 34 percent, or $132 million.

Those percentages were reversed 20 or so years ago, when state funding accounted for the majority of operating revenue, Bernie Hannon, Ball State treasurer, told the university's trustees on Friday.

But no one's complaining about state funding, which also pays for academic buildings like the College of Health under construction at a cost of more than $40 million. After its completion, construction will start next door on a new biology and chemistry building for which the state has earmarked $87.5 million.

BSU President Geoffrey S. Mearns called the attention of trustees to breaking news in higher education in other states: