PDF: Finance Materials

A Tennessee Board of Regents committee voted Tuesday to recommend a 6 percent increase in tuition for most four-year universities, two-year community colleges and Tennessee technology centers, but officials at Chattanooga State said the increase is not enough.

“The 6 percent increase is not going to give us enough revenue to cover the reduction in state appropriations,” said Tammy Swenson, vice president of business and finance at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. “The costs of goods and services have gone up, the cost of food in the cafeteria. Everything is going up in addition to appropriations reductions.”

The board is considering tuition increases as a way to help schools recover from $56 million in statewide higher-education cuts, Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning said.

The board’s business and finance committee discussed a tuition increase of more than 6 percent, but Gov. Phil Bredesen had asked the board to keep tuition as low as possible, Dr. Manning said.

Also, the board wants to follow the University of Tennessee system, which already announced it would cap tuition increases at 6 percent and is making $21.1 million in cuts, Dr. Manning said.

“There was a strong encouragement on the part of the governor,” he said. “UT had set 6 percent as a number, and that was an influence. We thought we could equal that, and that is what we ended up doing.”

Proposed tuition will increase more than 6 percent at the University of Memphis (7 percent), the University of Memphis School of Law (14 percent) and the East Tennessee State University College of Pharmacy (9 percent), board records show. At the East Tennessee College of Medicine, tuition is proposed to rise only 5 percent, according to board records.

Chattanooga State lost $633,000 in state appropriations and, since the tuition increases will not be higher than 6 percent, its officials are examining areas in which money can be saved, college spokeswoman Eva Lewis said.

No decisions have been made on what cuts will be made at Chattanooga State, Ms. Lewis said, but officials at the two-year college are taking a careful look at programs with small enrollment that may need to be slashed.

Faculty travel will be extremely limited next year, and open faculty positions will not be filled, she said.

“The last thing we want to do is consider layoffs, and (we) hope we don’t have to,” Ms. Lewis said.

Robbie Myers, a 19-year-old computer science student at Chattanooga State, said he isn’t happy about paying more for school, but he understands that a higher price tag will help the school break even.

“I am not pleased about it,” Mr. Myers said. “I have had to scrape literally the pennies together to pay for school, but (the board) didn’t do it randomly. It has been done, and it needs to be done. I just hope everyone steps it up a notch to make sure students have access.”

Lydia Lenker, press secretary for Gov. Phil Bredesen, said the governor is looking forward to the board of regents’ formal vote on tuition increases.

“He is very hopeful that the (board) can keep tuition costs manageable for the students,” she said.

The full Board of Regents will vote on the proposed tuition increases at its next meeting June 26-27.

Dr. Manning said he expects the full board to approve the proposed tuition increases, and that presidents of universities and two-year colleges are turning their sights to local cuts.

“It is never easy to cut, but it is going to be done, and everyone feels like they are up to the task,” he said.

Some presidents have discussed closing underutilized off-campus sites during the summer to save money, Dr. Manning said, and many campuses will increase fees.

Trucking schools, flight training programs and agricultural programs that require a lot of fuel could increase fees by as much as $100 next year, he said.

Comments