The University of Cincinnati's nine trustees announced the biggest tuition increase in more than a decade Wednesday, but it was less than what had been anticipated.

        The rare retreat came after Cincinnatians Joe Deters and Mike Allen targeted a $1 million rainy-day fund in the interim budget to bring down the proposed tuition increases.

        For the 13,000 students pursuing bachelor's degrees, tuition will go up 8 percent, not the 9 percent recommended by Dale L. McGirr, finance vice president.

        With previously approved fees, the increase is 9.1 percent, or $5,823/year starting in September, $51 less than what was proposed. Still, it's the highest increase since 1988-89, when trustees approved a 12 percent increase in tuition and fees.

NEW DAAP DEAN

University of Cincinnati trustees hired Judith Smith Koroscik Wednesday to be dean of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, effective Aug.1.     Dr. Koroscik, 50, an art educator, is dean of Ohio State University's College of the Arts. She succeeds Jay Chatterjee, who is retiring after 19 years as dean and 33 years with DAAP.     Goals include building on DAAP's research alliances with business and industry, expanding international opportunities for students and faculty and working with the community to strengthen cultural opportunities and the quality of art and design education in K-12 schools.     Dean Chatterjee called Dr. Koroscik “exactly the right person to lead the college at this point in its development. Her stature as an art educator and as a leader of the arts community and her experience of having served as the dean of one of the largest and most comprehensive arts colleges in the world will stand the (UC) college in good stead.”

        The lower increase cheered Jennifer Beard, 19, of Monfort Heights. The criminal psychology major said the difference was the price “of a textbook or something.”

        Andrew Hall, 20, of Findlay, Ohio, a sophomore in information systems, said tuition increases are a less pressing concern than a faculty strike looming for fall quarter.

        Generally, he said, UC was giving value for money, even at the higher rates. “They're giving us a lot of new things. It's not like they're raising our tuition and not giving us anything for it.”

        Wednesday's change was more dramatic for the law school.

        Instead of $10,432 for the coming year — a 21.3 percent increase — the 385 students will pay $9,348, an 8.7 percent increase when mandatory fees are included.

        That, however, may not be the end of it.

        The reduction reflects the trustees' decision to postpone the law school's requested $1,000 special fee for the 2001-02 school year.

        Before they reconsider imposing the fee, they want Dean Joseph Tomain to justify it, as well as special annual fees of $500 he requested for the following four years.

        That means law students — who go to school on semesters while most of the university runs on a quarter system — will pay half of the new tuition when they register for the fall term.

        Nothing prevents the trustees from imposing all or part of the $1,000 fee in a midyear increase after they've heard from Mr. Tomain at their next regular meeting in September.

        All of the special fee was to go to the law school, which must now do without it, at least until September.

        At the heart of the turmoil Wednesday was the General Assembly's failure to increase UC's basic subsidy and the possibility that legislators will cut higher education budgets further if the Ohio Supreme Court insists on more money for K-12 education.

        Looking for ways to minimize tuition increases, Mr. Deters, Ohio's secretary of state and former Hamilton County prosecutor, went after the $1 million being set aside as UC's hedge against another state cut.

        “I'd like to see us knock that out,” Mr. Deters said, saying that would cover a 1 percent reduction in undergraduate tuition. Trustees agreed, although President Joseph A. Steger warned that loss of that contingency fund would mean “we're really going to have to do some damage to the institution” if the General Assembly reduces the higher education appropriation.

        Then, with “great sympathy for the students,” Mr. Deters attacked the $1,000 law school fee, followed by Mr. Allen, the current prosecutor, who said “it's not fair to saddle them with an increase of this size” without warning.

        Mr. McGirr, 24-year UC employee, could not recall a time when trustees cut a proposed tuition increase.
       

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