By Dennis O’Neil
When the University of Louisville Board of Trustees met Thursday, it seemed its 2020 Business Plan was under attack from all sides.
Earlier this month, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education rejected U of L’s plan, which required $31 million in funding from the state.
At the meeting, Student Government Association President Brian Hoffman vocally opposed the plan, saying its aims are unrealistic. Though the other trustees all voted in favor of the plan, Hoffman cited the plan’s approach to tuition as a problem which is unavoidable.
The business plan stated that the university would raise tuition no more than 5.5 percent as long as adequate funds are provided by the state. Hoffman stated that these low starting figures have often been subject for humor in Task Force on Tuition meetings.
“In one instance, a starting figure of 7 percent was laughed at by almost the entire committee,” Hoffman said. “Students deserve more than a long term tuition plan that becomes a punch line.”
Several in the student body share Hoffman’s passionate stance about tuition.
“I understand inflation, but tuition is becoming a huge factor in students’ discontinuing their education or not beginning at all,” M.A.T. student Emilie McKiernan said. “I think the university should do everything in their power to keep tuition from rising too high.”
“As students, we spend so much on things like books for our classes that any type of tuition increase has a significant impact,” English graduate student Josh Harris said. “It would be nice if the university could grow without having to make students pay for it.”
The tuition situation is worsened by the Council on Post Secondary Education’s funding recommendation to the state, in which U of L has only been covered for $11 million of the $31 million that it requested.
According to Vice President for Finance Michael Curtin, it is not set that the CPE’s recommendation is what U of L will ultimately receive in state funding. The currently poor state of the economy, Curtin said, makes the situation hard to judge.
“There is a discussion nationally that we may be going into a recession in the mid-2008 time frame,” Curtin said. “The economic indicators right now are not very good.”
Despite this, Curtin said that the university’s business plan is currently being modified to suit some of the CPE’s recommendations.
He also stressed the importance of state funding in keeping tuition low.
“If the state doesn’t provide us with the general funding dollars that we need,” Curtin said, “then the only other large revenue source for the university is tuition.”
Hoffman said that the university’s tuition rates are often too much influenced by reactions from the state.
He feels that the university should be willing to define what they believe is affordable for their students and then stand by it.
“They should be willing to pre-empt the state and say ‘this is all we are going to charge our students for tuition,'” Hoffman said.
“That would be so bold. Our mission as a public institution is to educate the state, and the only way to defend that mission is to keep it affordable.”
Hoffman also said student services, such as student lounging areas and classroom technology, were under addressed in the plan.
“The type of money they are laying out doesn’t demonstrate that tense of a commitment,” Hoffman said.
“When you consider that enrollment will continue to rise, 2 million here and 2 million there isn’t going to make that much of a dent.”
Curtin said that the university will know more after the Kentucky General Assembly begins meeting on Jan. 4, 2008.
“We are going to work as hard as we can to get as much state funding as they are able to give us,” Curtin said.
“We should have a tuition number formulated by late February or early March.”
