Missouri curators OK tuition increase

ST. LOUIS -- Hamstrung by an expected reduction in state funding, the University of Missouri Board of Curators voted Friday to raise tuition and other assorted educational fees 8.4 percent while dropping plans to give staff and faculty a 4 percent raise.

The board won't officially make a decision on the pay raise until approving a budget at its meeting in May. But Manuel Pacheco, the system's president, said it's highly unlikely revenue needed to fund an increase will turn up in the interim.

"But if the economy improves, I'm sure we'll consider it," Pacheco said.

University officials said they struggled with finding a way to cover the 10 percent reduction in state funding recommended by Gov. Bob Holden. After making a series of other cuts, including eliminating the planned pay raise and mission enhancement plans, officials said they were still left facing an $11.1 million shortfall.

That required boosting tuition and other assorted fees an additional 5.4 percent above the 3 percent increase already planned to cover the cost of inflation, said Nikki Krawitz, the system's vice president for finance and administration.

The average cost of the increase to an undergraduate who is a Missouri resident will be about $357 a year, she said.

"Not to trivialize it, but that's just under $30 a month extra that students have to shoulder," Krawitz said.

Russ Zguta, a professor of Russian history at the university's Columbia campus and chair of the campus' faculty council, said he understands there is not much more school officials can do to cover the shortfall. Everyone, students and faculty alike, are being asked to chip in, he said.

"We're all in this together," Zguta said. "We're sharing in the pain."