WEST LAFAYETTE | The Purdue University board of trustees on Friday approved a proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 that includes a decrease for Hammond's Purdue University Calumet and increases for Purdue University North Central in Westville and Valparaiso.
Under the proposed plan, PUC would get a 2.4 percent reduction to $84 million and PNC would see a 9.4 percent increase to $32.8 million. The increase at PNC includes 6.8 percent in debt service funds for a student services-activities complex, the university said in a news release issued Friday.
The proposal is scheduled to move to the board's Executive Committee for a final vote following a public hearing on proposed tuition and fees May 22.
"This budget proposal was designed to keep Purdue affordable for students and families, ensure the continued high quality of a Purdue education and use internal savings to cover the frozen tuition at West Lafayette and balance the budgets at the regional campuses," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in the statement issued Friday.
The conceptual general fund budget — $1.24 billion systemwide for the coming academic year — was drafted after the state approved its two-year spending plan. The state appropriation of $244.8 million is 4.7 percent above the $233.8 million appropriation for the last two years.
"Almost half of Indiana's finest high school students are choosing Purdue, an unprecedented phenomenon," Daniels said.
Student tuition and fees account for 62 percent of Purdue's general fund budget. Purdue's resident tuition and fees currently rank ninth out of 11 public Big Ten universities and sixth for nonresident students, according to the release.
The total operating budget for fiscal year 2014 is not yet finalized and will be presented at the trustees' September meeting for approval.