SIU approves tuition, fee increases

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Tuition and fees for new students will increase by about $1,000 at Southern Illinois University's campuses in Edwardsville and Carbondale this fall.

The university's board of trustees approved the increase Thursday.

Tuition for new full-time students at the university's flagship Carbondale campus will increase by $540 a year, a 9.3 percent increase, for a total of $6,348. At the Edwardsville campus, tuition for new full-time students will rise $470, a 9.9 percent increase, for a total of $5,227.

Fees at Carbondale will rise by about $550, or 28 percent, which follows a $486 jump a year ago. In Edwardsville, fees will increase by $624, or 53 percent, after having risen by $320, or 37 percent, a year before.

Under Illinois' guaranteed tuition law, students pay the same tuition rate for four years but pay most fee increases.

The Carbondale school's Graduate and Professional Student Council opposed most of the fee increases, and the groups president, Jon Pressley, wondered how students will be able to handle the higher costs without similar increases in their stipends or other income sources.

"Tuition and fees are outpacing what we're paid as graduate students," he said.

John Dunn, the Carbondale school's interim chancellor, said applications for fall enrollment are up 11 percent so far over last year -- good news for the school that had been fighting enrollment declines in recent years.

Other Illinois universities also are considering tuition increases.

Eastern Illinois University trustees have not decided on next semester's tuition but are expected to discuss it at their April 27 meeting, spokeswoman Janice Hunt said.

The University of Illinois system hasn't yet set tuition levels for next semester at its three campuses, though trustees are likely to take up that issue at their May meeting, spokesman Tom Hardy said.