The University of Arkansas System will ask its trustees this week for tuition increases at all of its four-year universities except for one -- Little Rock.
Only two of the system's five community colleges are asking for tuition increases: Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas will ask for a 6.6 percent increase -- while trying out a new program that does away with most textbooks -- and the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope will ask for a 1.6 percent increase, according to board documents. This does not include mandatory fees.
"It was a deliberative process," UA System President Donald Bobbitt said Monday. "We try to balance the needs of the colleges and universities with the needs of our students. We want our institutions to remain viable and competitive and serve their students at the same time."
The board of trustees will meet Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville to take up the tuition and fees proposals, among other items. The proposals come as all colleges and universities within the system are also facing increases in health insurance premiums because of an unexpected amount of catastrophic claims in the last year.
"We ask [the campuses] to define an increase in terms of what the campuses' needs are," Bobbitt said. "If they invest new money, we encourage [it to go to] faculty and staff salaries and retention and graduation initiatives."
At the Fayetteville campus, officials will ask for a 3.8 percent tuition and mandatory fee increase for in-state undergraduate students. If approved, the tuition and fee total at the 26,237-student campus will go from $8,208 to $8,521 for a student taking 30 credit hours over two semesters in the 2015-2016 academic year.
An increase in the flagship campus' facility fee will generate nearly $1.2 million for the renovation of facilities, according to board documents. Increases related to growth include $5.4 million for academics and $1.5 million for finance and administration, the documents say.
Officials at the Fayetteville campus will also ask for a 7.5 percent increase for out-of-state tuition, the board documents say. Of any total revenue gains, the campus wants to reserve $550,000 from tuition increases to offset any declining numbers in out-of-state enrollment, the documents say. If the reserve is not needed, the campus will use the money for academic success initiatives.
The biggest jumps among the four-year universities are at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the University of Arkansas at Monticello, where students could face a 6 percent overall tuition and mandatory fee increase.
The Fort Smith campus, which saw a 6 percent increase last year, is facing decreasing enrollment. In fall 2014, the university had 6,823 students, and officials project another decrease of 391 full-time students, according to board documents. While the campus has eliminated some faculty, administrative and staff positions and cut other expenses, it is still facing an increase of 14 percent in sewer rates, utility costs with the opening of the Windgate Art and Design building, and health-care premiums, the board documents state.
At the Fort Smith campus, a student taking 30 hours over two semesters will pay $6,322 next year, compared with the current $5,962, for tuition and mandatory fees, according to the proposal.
"In the case of Fort Smith, they have done an admirable job of cutting budgets in non-critical areas to redevote funds for retention and graduation," Bobbitt said, adding that the system is committed to increasing retention and graduation rates at all of its schools over the next few years.
At Monticello, the proposals would help provide a 1 percent salary increase to all employees. The 3,854-student university -- along with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff -- has lost faculty to higher-paying public school systems, Bobbitt said. The tuition and mandatory-fee total at UA-Monticello would increase from $6,082 to $6,447 for students taking 30 hours over two semesters, according to board documents.
The Little Rock campus -- though also experiencing declining enrollment -- has taken different steps to offset the expenses.
"While this is not a decision we will be able to make every year, we know that families continue to struggle to afford college because their income isn't increasing," UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said in a statement. "We have heard these concerns and have made difficult budget reductions internally to hold down the costs."
Most recently, the university announced it would make $2.4 million in cuts to its five colleges and nonacademic units. UALR officials project another decrease in enrollment, from the current 11,645 students, and will ask the board for a 1.5 percent mandatory fee increase. For a student taking 30 hours over two semesters, that would mean $8,165 instead of the current $8,045.
Among the UA System's two-year colleges, Cossatot's students are facing the highest increase. Overall, the 1,578-student college could see a 14.5 percent swell in tuition and mandatory fees for students taking 30 hours over two semesters, or a bump from the current $2,332 to $2,670.
"It looks strange on paper," Bobbitt said. "They're using those funds to eliminate the need for their students to purchase textbooks. They can show pretty clearly that even with [the proposed tuition increase], students will pay less next year than they did this year."
Cossatot's Chancellor Steve Cole, a former state representative, said Monday that the idea came to the faculty and staff as the contract with one of the college's book vendors was expiring.
"We wanted to strip away all the emotions and start thinking about the student and their families," Cole said. "We were starting to see books that were like $300. And our students have a hard enough time paying tuition and fees."
The college -- which, before the increase, had the second lowest tuition rate in the state, according to Cole -- encouraged the faculty to go out and look for open-source materials for their classes, he said. Many universities already offered textbooks online for free, he said.
"So why put ourselves through this?" he asked.
For some degree programs, such as nursing, online materials weren't feasible. So Relinda Ruth, the college's director of the Educational Resource Center, got together with faculty to find textbooks that were affordable for the college to buy, Cole said. The college will then rent out the textbooks for $30 a semester.
All of the textbooks and online material are vetted by the college's curriculum and standards committee, so as not to damage the quality of instruction, Cole said. A student there could save at the very least $700 from the textbook program, he said, adding that about 75 percent of the students are on some type of financial aid.
"The devil is in the details," Cole said. "And so this first year, we're going to learn some things, and I feel confident that it will work. We're putting our money out there in hopes of helping a student."
Metro on 05/19/2015