Thursday, April 01, 1999
UC considers tuition hike
Trustees will decide in June
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Students at the area's largest university may face a 5-percent tuition increase in each of the next two years, the University of Cincinnati's board of trustees was told Wednesday.
The UC board won't vote on the proposed increase until June. But the tuition hike would be in line with the increases already approved by other local colleges and universities.
Northern Kentucky University, for example, has announced a 5.2-percent tuition increase for the 1999-2000 school year, and the College of Mount St. Joseph has set a 4-percent increase.
A 5-percent increase at UC would translate to an extra $237 a year for full-time undergraduate students and is lower than a proposed 6-percent state cap on tuition increases.
Students on the Clifton campus were not pleased.
“It's bad enough now. I'm out of state, too, so that won't be good at all,” said Amina Mdingi of Tanzania, a pre-senior in information systems. “It's expensive to go here, plus you've got to buy all those books. It really adds up.”
H.Y. Wang, a senior computer science major, said an increase would just show that the university doesn't care about the students.
“I work full-time. I go to school full-time. I have financial aid, and I pay my own tuition,” she said. “This is just unfair to most of the people.”
But Tom Herbort, a sophomore from West Chester, said the university still would be offering a good education for a relatively low price.
“That is not going to be a substantial impact for people,” said Mr. Herbort, who is majoring in chemical engineering. “But any tuition increase is going to be a negative for students as a whole.”
Even with the proposed increase, the university will have to cut $6 million — or 2.5 percent — from its $241 million core budget.
Those cuts, plus the money the university will make from the tuition increase and the increased state funding that UC is expecting, will amount to a 4 percent overall budget increase, said Dale McGirr, UC's vice president for finance.
And that's just enough to cover inflation and a basic 3-percent raise for staff, he said.
The board of trustees will decide in June how to make the cuts. The board could opt for an across-the-board 2.5 percent cut or could cut more heavily in administrative costs in an effort to spare academic programs.
No matter what, the cuts will lead to a reduction in staff, Mr. McGirr said, although some staff could be cut through attrition.
University officials will be lobbying the state for a bigger increase in state funds.
But even if more state money comes through, university officials will recommend that any additional money be saved rather than using it to reduce the cuts, Mr. McGirr said.
“The reserves aren't as high as they were 10 years ago,” he said. “You're kind of never too liquid.”
Tuition at UC's two-year University College would go down, according to the budget summary Mr. McGirr gave trustees.
As part of a statewide effort to reduce tuition at 2-year colleges, UC officials are recommending that tuition at University College be reduced by 6 percent next year.
That would save the average, full-time student there about $250 a year, Mr. McGirr said.
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