Tuition increase necessary for NSU

(Tahlequah, OK)--College students, prospective students and their families received some expected news June 24 when the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted unanimously to approve tuition increases asked by the state's 25 publicly funded colleges and universities.

Requested increases ranged from 3.2 to 5.5 percent. At Northeastern State University, an in-state student taking 30 hours during an academic year will pay $4,384.50. An undergraduate credit hour will now cost $146.15 in tuition and mandatory fees, an increase of $7.65. A student taking a typical 15-hour semester class load will pay about 88 cents a day.

Mark Kinders, NSU's vice president for University Relations, said tuition increases are necessitated by several factors, a big one being the reduction of NSU's state funding by 4.07 percent.

"We also are confronted with what are known as 'mandatory costs,' " Kinders said. "Those are the annual inflationary increases we experience in utilities, risk management, health insurance and contractual services. They alone account for another $1.4 million dollars in expenses."

Furthermore, the student body has asked that construction of a health and wellness center on the Tahlequah campus be a top consideration, going so far as to approve a $5 "student fee" to assist. Kinders said NSU considers the construction a priority.

"When you look at all of this in aggregate, our tuition and fees increase is 5.5 percent," he said. "If we were going to simply increase tuition to make up all those components we would require a 12.5 percent increase. We are keeping tuition costs down for our students and we're going to make up the difference through spending down our reserves, prudent fiscal management and some reallocation of existing resources. So we are being very price-sensitive to our students and their families and working to make our tuition predictable and affordable."

To date, NSU and many other Oklahoma colleges and universities have avoided the workforce reductions bludgeoning the private sector and many municipal agencies, and some taxpayers wonder why. Kinders explained that the flailing economy puts universities in a conundrum. Lower employment means less tax revenue, and respectively results in more students with less state funding to support them. However, more students necessitates the need for more faculty and staff.

Kinders said NSU wants to avoid personnel cuts, adding that the institution is actually "in growth mode" despite budget issues.

"We're in high demand right now because of the economy," he said. "This is a national phenomenon. We've had enrollment increases over the previous year of 5.4 percent last fall, 6.5 percent in the spring and our largest summer enrollment in 18 years. We can't be in the position of losing personnel while we must accommodate those students. It isn't enough just to provide these students with access. We need to ensure quality, and that means we need our faculty and staff in place. Quite frankly we have areas across the institution where we could use more faculty and staff to meet that student demand."

Complicating the situation for Oklahoma higher learning is the anticipation of further state funding cuts and the end of federal stimulus funding, known nationally in the public sector as the "funding cliff."

"When we received some of that stimulus, in turn dollars from the Oklahoma taxpayer were taken from us," Kinders said. "When the funding cliff hits with the start of the next fiscal year (July 1, 2011), there will be no federal source to cover those lost Oklahoma dollars. That will be a 3.4 percent reduction in our budget."

NSU's administration is still looking for ways to squeeze into its budget after the stimulus cash goes away in 2011.

"We're going to have to figure out how to make that up, whether through expanded enrollments, tuition dollars or seeking other funding sources that we can develop," Kinders said. "We will look at federal grants and allocations."

Oklahoma may also find some extra money to inject into higher education, but Kinders said NSU can't put all its eggs there.

"We may see an improvement in state appropriations," he said. "There are some revenue projections showing it headed in that direction. However the growth is not spectacular. It's modest. It will not be at a level capable of making up the amount taken out of our budget over the last two years."

Other austerity measures are in place. NSU went to a four-day work week, asking employees to work 10-hour days during the summer session to cut utility costs. Some vacant positions remain open to be filled during happier economic times. NSU plans to implement a textbook rental program which will allow students to rent books for many courses at half the cost of purchase.

While the cost of college may appear daunting at first glance, Kinders said the long-term benefits of a college education are still easily worth the expense.

"For the individual, a holder of a bachelor's degree earns an average of $1 million lifetime more than someone with a high school diploma," Kinders said. "Earn an advanced degree a master's, doctorate or professional degree and that lifetime earning premium goes up dramatically."

Kinders also pointed to the "social compact" facet of becoming a college graduate that the community gains job creation and wealth as a result of the additional earned income and intellectual entrepreneurship provided by those with college educations. He also noted the proximity of well-funded and continuously improving schools to concentrations of college graduates is not coincidental.

"There is a very simple correlation that the states with the highest number of college graduates also have the highest per capita income," he said. "As a matter of public policy the state, through the administration and legislature, has said very clearly that it wants more college degree holders in Oklahoma. NSU wants to help make that happen, and we are doing our part by taking our budget reductions yet holding down the costs to our students. At the same time, we're not going to sacrifice quality for access."

Kinders said prospective college students shouldn't be put off by a fear of debt, noting the debt incurred is low in Oklahoma and that assistance is available for those in need, such as scholarships through the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program and federal Pell grants.

Aggressively pursuing alternative funding sources is one way NSU works to control tuition costs. Gifts, grants, federal programs and fund-raising activities cover 23 percent of the institution's total budget. Tuition and fees pay 40 percent and the state funds 37 percent.

As to the cost of educating a student, Oklahoma covers 48 percent of the expense while the student picks up 47 percent. In 2002, the percentages were 72 and 26, respectively.

"Because of these last couple of economic downturns, more of the financial burden of a college education has been shifted to students," Kinders said. "We are optimistic that when the economy improves the state administration and legislature will reallocate some of the taxpayers' money back into offsetting the costs of educating these students. That would keep tuition increases to a minimum and maintain and improve the quality of the education offered."