By Mallory Bowman

University of Louisville Provost Shirley Willihnganz announcedlast Friday that students can expect a 13.3 percent tuitionincrease for the 2004-2005 school year.

The proposed increase comes out to approximately $2,520 persemester, $295 more than the current $2,225 per semester price.

Willihnganz said university administration took a close look attuition and that because of state budget cuts, the universitycouldn’t afford a lesser increase.

“State support for education is becoming less,” shesaid. “We have to rely more on other sources of income tocover that. We don’t see a lot more room to createefficiencies in the system.”

Willihnganz said that tuition currently covers 38 percent of thetotal U of L college costs. Total tuition and fee revenue for nextyear is $290,624,545, which will cover 40.7 percent of that totalcollege cost next year.

This is not the first time U of L students have had to deal withrising tuition. U of L tuition has increased yearly and Kentuckystate universities have suffered budget cuts for four consecutiveyears. Students have mixed feelings about facing yet another blowto their pocket books.

“My mom has to work to put me through college,”freshman Julie Allen said. “Now she’s going to have tomake more money to pay for my tuition and that is going to mess upmy Free Application for Federal Student Aid, so I’m going tolose money.”

Senior Marcus Crumbacher said he doesn’t look forward tothe increases, although he is prepared for them.

“Even though I don’t like it, I understand that [theuniversity has] to do it.”

At a public hearing on tuition last Friday, administrationtargeted four major areas that the 13.3 percent increase will gotoward:

• Financial Aid: If a student is on scholarship at U of L,the university must allocate dollars to ensure that if tuitionincreases, the amount of the scholarship meets the increase.Increased dollars are also being set aside for merit scholarshipsto continue to attract academically competitive students to U of L.More money is also being put into need-based financial aid.

• New faculty positions: An approximate $1.5 million isbeing allocated from tuition increases to support new facultypositions.

• Student experience: An approximate $3.5 million will beused to improve the experience that students have at U of L. Thesedollars will affect areas such as advising; academic supportservices to improve retention; improving the first-year experience;diversity; and the university’s”vision-focus-action” plan, which is a group ofcommittees looking at how the university can make improvementsacross the board.

• Technology and library support: tuition money will alsobe used for the improvement of university technology and librarysupport, including the addition the library which began more thantwo weeks ago.

Willihnganz said firm dollar amounts concerning the abovecategories have not been nailed down. She said administration willbe working with each area in the coming weeks to determine how muchof the tuition money will go toward each. She added that severalentities within U of L had been working together to cite areas thatneeded the additional tuition dollars. Among those consulted werethe President’s Advisory Committee on Planning and Budget;Faculty Senate Committees; Staff Senate Committees; Deans;Vice-Presidents; Student Government Association; and various inputat a public hearing last Friday.

Willihnganz said she knows budget cuts have already been feltthroughout the university, especially in the College of Arts andSciences, which accounts for the highest percentage of majors andgeneral education courses at U of L. Although no number has beenformally identified, many classes were scheduled to be cut from Aand S. However, Willihnganz said that the tuition increase wouldhelp reinstate some, if not all of those classes.

“A and S teaches so many classes,” she said.”I am meeting with the A and S dean and I am hoping to beable to tell him to go ahead and reopen the courses that have beenclosed.”

In comparison to other universities, Willihnganz said U of L isstill very affordable.

“Kentucky is the eighth most affordable state in the U.S.as far as colleges go,” she said.

The University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky Universityrecently announced there tuition hikes for the coming school year.UK’s tuition is going up 16.1 percent and EKU’s tuitionis going up 19 percent.

Willihnganz said UK is the in-state college that U of L comparesitself to on matters such as tuition. For 2004-2005, UK in-stateundergraduates will pay $2,582 and U of L in-state undergraduateswill pay $2,520. However, senior Daniel Johnsen said hedoesn’t feel that is a safe comparison.

“We are not the same tiered university as UK,” hesaid. “We’re a little bit lower.”

Willihnganz said as far as in-state, UK is the best comparisonto U of L because both universities are classified as researchinstitutions.

Students will know for sure by Wednesday what the final word ison 2004-2005 tuition when the proposed 13.3 percent increase willbe taken in front of the U of L Executive Committee to be votedupon.