UA Trustees Increase Tuition
by May 17, 1999 12:00 am 47 views
In a May 7 meeting, the University of Arkansas board of trustees decided to raise tuition at all seven campuses in the UA system.
The UA’s main campus in Fayetteville will see the greatest increase at 7.5 percent for in-state students. That brings the Fayetteville campus’ tuition to $100 per semester hour for the fall of 1999, slightly less than that of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (at $101 per semester hour) but more than other universities in the UA system.
An Arkansas resident student taking 14 hours of course work on the Fayetteville campus would see his tuition increase from $1,302 to $1,400 per semester. For students coming to the UA from other states, the tuition for 14 hours would increase from $3,542 to $3,892 per semester.
The trustees also voted to raise room and board costs at UA dormitories by 2.3 percent.
John White, chancellor of the UA’s Fayetteville campus, says the state legislature provides 60 percent of the 2.8 percent salary increases authorized for faculty and staff for the next fiscal year. So the difference must come from other sources, including a tuition increase.
White says the UA’s priorities are scholarships, fellowships, faculty salaries, libraries, upgrading information technology and providing research matching funds for federal grants.
“We developed a five-year plan that we believe would move the U. of A. into a position to be ranked among the nation’s top 50 public universities,” White wrote in an e-mail response to questions about the tuition increase. “The state funding for fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2001 will cause us to extend the time line for our plan. The increase in state support is appreciated, but it does not allow us to gain ground on our competitors.”
The UA expects 5.4 percent increase (amounting to $4.8 million) in total funding from the legislature for the next fiscal year, but the amount is only 2.4 percent ($2.2 million) for the fiscal year beginning in the fall of 2000. Another $12 million is expected for various capital improvements and research projects.
Based on an in-state student taking 14 hours per semester (the median class load), annual tuition increases (percentage) at the UA from fall 1992 through fall 1998 were 5.6, 4.8, 3.8, 11.1, 11.2 and 6.3. The increase for 1999-2000 will be 7.5 percent. But when tuition and fees are added together, the increase was less this year than last year – 7.4 percent compared with 9.1 percent. If room and board are included, the increase in total costs is even less – 4.5 percent compared with 6.1 percent in 1998-99.