TERRE HAUTE — Aside from a few email messages expressing concern about rising fuel prices, Indiana State University president Daniel J. Bradley said Tuesday he has received no public comment about proposed tuition and fee increases for the next two years.
A brief public hearing on Tuesday drew no comment, as ISU officials met to receive input on a proposed 3.5-percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.
The matter now goes to the ISU Board of Trustees, which next meets on June 17.
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education had recommended that ISU limit its tuition increases to a maximum of 2.5 percent each of the next two years.
For an Indiana resident enrolled on a full-time basis, the recommended tuition and mandatory fees for 2011-12 would be $3,991 per semester, an increase of $134.
“The comments I’ve gotten are from commuter students and they all revolve around their cost of transportation,” Bradley said following the hearing, noting that when the spring semester ended a few weeks ago, gas prices were around $4 per gallon.
“One thing I’ve asked our student affairs office,” Bradley said, “is to really try to step up and work with commuter students in particular about how we might be able to help them set up carpooling and other sorts of things that could dramatically decrease their commuting costs.”
He said the tuition increases in Indiana, and at Indiana State, are going to be far less than students see in some neighboring states. The tuition and fee increases will go primarily toward insurance and utility costs, he said.
Bradley also noted that the increase makes up for less than half of the dollars the state has cut from ISU’s funding.
ISU’s state appropriation was cut by 5.4 percent for the 2011-12 fiscal year, a decline of $3.9 million.
In addition, no funding was provided for maintenance and upkeep of the university’s buildings and infrastructure.
During the past three years, ISU’s state appropriation has declined by about 12 percent or a total of $9.2 million.
The latest cuts bring ISU’s state appropriation down to the same level as the 1996-97 fiscal year, Bradley said recently, noting that the university will continue to search for and make operational changes that reduce costs to balance tuition.
The university also plans to increase the funding it provides for student financial aid by 3.5 percent to help cover the increase in tuition and fees.
Limiting tuition increases to 2.5 percent each year, as the Commission for Higher Education recommended, would have forced the university to cut another $800,000 or so this year and double that in the following year, Bradley said.
Even with the 3.5-percent tuition increases, another $1 million in cuts will be needed for fiscal year 2013, he said.
The cuts may involve vacant positions.
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