By Dan Carden, Times of Northwest Indiana
dan.carden@nwi.com
INDIANAPOLIS | Students won't face higher tuition charges even as Indiana colleges and universities lose $150 million from their budgets over the next 18 months, Higher Education Commissioner Teresa Lubbers said Tuesday.
"Based on our calculations and our discussions with university leaders, we don't expect that tuition increases will be necessary," Lubbers said.
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education sent its recommendations for school-by-school budget reductions to Gov. Mitch Daniels on Tuesday.
In absolute dollars, Indiana University would take the biggest hit, losing nearly $59 million of its $1.02 billion, two-year budget. Purdue University would lose $45 million of its $751 million appropriation.
Indiana State University is slated to lose the largest percentage of its budget, nearly 7 percent. The school, located in Terre Haute, would see its funds reduced to $147 million from $157 million.
Boards of trustees for each college or university would make the final decisions on how to cut their budgets.
Lubbers said she believes plenty of efficiencies could be exploited to save money.
The Republican governor asked the commission to cut $150 million from higher education to help Indiana address a projected $1.8 billion budget deficit through June 2011.