ASU Board Of Trustees Approves $244 Million Budget, Tuition Hikes For 2015-16 School Year

The Arkansas State University Board of Trustees on Friday okayed a $243.7 million operating budget and campus tuition and fee increases for the 2015-2016 academic year, meaning full-time students at the system’s flagship campus in Jonesboro will pay additional costs of about $165 per semester.

System President Charles L. Welch told members of the board’s regularly scheduled meeting in Jonesboro that the ASU system campuses have worked hard to control costs, saying administrators and the board are second-guessed about tuition increases.

“There’s lots of feelings that higher ed spending is out of control, but that’s absolutely not true with the ASU System,” he said. “Over the last five years, our total budget has risen 10.6 percent — that’s just 2 percent annually. This year’s budget is lower than last year’s. Jonesboro had the lowest increase in tuition and fees of any Arkansas university last year.”

Welch complained to lawmakers that funding for higher education also has not changed during that same period. “Over the last five years, the amount of money put into higher education by the state is zero percent. Higher education needs adequate funding just like K-12 schools. The state has determined it takes a 2.5% increase in funds every year for K-12 to maintain an adequate education. Why shouldn’t it be the same for higher education? We should feel good about what we’re doing. I want to applaud our campuses. They are doing more with less.”

Overall, tuition and fees at the Jonesboro flagship campus will increase by a total of 4.27%. The average additional cost to full-time students will be $165 per semester. Across the ASU system, approved tuition hikes included ASU-Beebe, 4.6%; ASU-Mountain Home, 2.7%; and ASU-Newport, 3.8%.

Welch also announced the pending retirement of ASU-Beebe Chancellor Eugene McKay, effective Jan. 15. He has served in various roles on the campus for 49-and-a-half years.

“He’s put his entire life into ASU-Beebe,” Welch said. “You can’t think of that institution without thinking of him. It’s bittersweet because we’re happy for him, but it will leave a gaping hole on that campus.”

In other ASU news, Chancellor Tim Hudson told the board it was a “watershed moment” when A-State welcomed NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine to campus recently. In August, the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board granted the New York Institute of Technology certification for an additional osteopathic medical school site on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

Last week, NYIT announced it received the go-ahead to proceed with development of an additional site on the Jonesboro campus and plans to open in August 2016. Also, Welch said that pending approval of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), Mid-South Community College in West Memphis will become ASU Mid-South. The HLC has scheduled its site visit on May 18-19.

He said 57 individuals applied for the chancellor position to succeed Dr. Glen Fenter, and four candidates will be interviewed during May.

The board also agreed to the recommendations of Welch and the four chancellors to maintain the system’s Weapons Policy and “opt out” of Act 226 of the Arkansas General Assembly. The act gives colleges the option of not allowing staff and faculty to carry a concealed handgun on campus.