State schools look to hikes in tuition during tight budget year

Associated Press/ Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Bush, left, and U.S. Senate candidate Jim Talent arrived at the Lambert St. Louis International Airport on Monday in St. Louis. Bush is in St. Louis to attend a campaign fund raiser for Talent. The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- College students across Missouri may be asked to pay more for their education to help universities make up state funding gaps. In many cases, the students will get less for their money.

During the past 90 days, tuition has jumped 15.4 percent at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. And University of Missouri officials said Monday that their Board of Curators will be asked this week to approve an 8.4 percent tuition increase.

Missouri's higher education budget hasn't been exempt from spending reductions in the current budget year, as Gov. Bob Holden grapples with slumping state revenues. And colleges and universities are bracing for tight funding in the next budget year, which starts July 1.

A disclaimer now appears on all the University of Missouri financial publications warning students that midyear tuition and fee increases are possible.

"We've never had to do that in the past, but it's a volatile situation now," said David Russell, the University of Missouri system's director of university relations.

Southwest Missouri State University already has instituted the kind of tuition increases that Missouri warns about. The university's Board of Governors in December approved a $6-per-credit-hour fee increase. Last Friday, the board passed another $11-per-hour hike.

Tuition and fee increases are being considered elsewhere.

Central Missouri State plans to take up the issue in May. Missouri Southern State College will consider raising tuition in April. Northwest Missouri State imposed a surcharge in July. Truman State University increased its tuition 9.5 percent in February.

"We are between a rock and a hard place," said Julio Leon, president of Missouri Southern, which charges $90 per credit-hour. "State-funded institutions are now state-assisted institutions. Higher education is part of discretionary state funding."

10 percent cut

Holden cut 10 percent from his higher education budget for next year after withholding portions of appropriations this year.

Another round of cuts is possible, officials say, if legislators can't find another way to cut another $100 million to balance the budget.

Leon has decided to wait to take action on the inevitable tuition hike until April.

"It will give us more time to see the picture coming out of Jefferson City," he said. "We fear it might become higher than a 10 percent cut."

Until then, a $12-per-credit-hour surcharge is helping Missouri Southern make ends meet. Leon said it's troubling that the state continues to pay for a smaller percentage of the university's budget. The amount of the state budget devoted to higher education has gone from about 18 percent in the early 1980s to about 12 percent, he said.

"If not for the cut in the state appropriation, we would have held to the 3 percent increase," said Russell.

On Monday, officials of the four-campus system said the governing Board of Curators will be asked during meetings Thursday in St. Louis to boost the credit-hour tab to $153.40 from the current $141.50 -- or $4,602 for 30 hours.

The increase should generate more than $11 million, University of Missouri officials project.