Collegiate Times

At its quarterly meeting on Monday, the Board of Visitors agreed to raise student tuition for the 2007-2008 school year. Instate undergraduate tuition will go up $424 to $7,397 from its current rate of $6,973. Out-of-state students will be paying $726 more at $19,775 from its current $19,049.

Instate on-campus housing will go up to $12,503 from its current $11,739. Likewise, out-of-state students living on campus will pay $24,811 from the current rate of $23,815. The full on-campus tuition has nearly doubled since 2001 when instate tuition was $7,696.

“(The raise in tuition) is fundamentally because of state support,” said Larry Hincker, associate vice president of University Relations.

In 2002 the government took away 24 percent of the university’s budget appropriating $62 million and then an additional $10 million the next year.
“The university is trying to recover,” Hincker said.

In the fiscal year 2002, the university had lost $78 million to support instruction for students. This has gone up since then at $169 million for the 2007 fiscal year. The university, therefore, has been trying to compensate for the decrease in funding. Hincker also said in addition, there has been a large increase of enrollment that calls for a higher tuition.

To receive funding, the Virginia General Assembly has advised the university to raise its tuition no more than 6 percent. Tech’s increase is 5.9 percent. This advising comes from the Tuition Moderation Fund. Different universities in Virginia have set up different targets.

“We would be eligible for state funding if we raise our tuition,” Hincker said.
In order to maintain its current quality, professors at Tech are being paid in the 60th percentile, which is slightly above the average for the university’s peer institutions.

Compared to its peer institutions Hincker said that Tech’s tuition is low and below average. While the tuition has gone up significantly in the past few years, Hincker said that the tuition’s initial base was already low.

Tech will not do differential tuition, something that Radford officials are proposing. Under differential tuition, different programs would cost different amounts making programs such as engineering cost significantly higher than liberal arts programs.

The new tuition will be affecting the Funds for the Future Program that assists students with financial aid. The program insulates four-year students from tuition increases, but will still affect hundreds of students.

“This will be an increase in the expenditures for Funds for the Future,” said Barry Simmons, director of Scholarships and Financial Aid.
Funds for the Future is still fine tuning the model for these extra expenditures, but is estimating that it will be $1.3 million. In addition, the Fund may be able to open the eligibility requirements to receive aid. It is not expecting any funding from the state.

“Any time there is an increase, we factor that into the eligibility requirements,” Simmons said.

Finally, the new tuition will be a supplemental fee for Engineering students. A $30 per credit supplemental fee will be added to improve the quality of instruction, equipment, and lab work. It will affect any student enrolled in an engineering course. So far the fee has been met with positive reactions.

“I think it will help us improve our labs,” said Rakesh Kapania, a professor in the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering department. “I don’t think (the fee) costs too much, but I think it will do well for education.

Despite the changes in tuition, according to data gathered by the university, Tech ranks 20 out of 23 in terms of most expensive tuition amongst its peer universities.

The tuition changes will go into effect this fall.