EMU: Voting Tuesday on 3.65 percent tuition increase
This story will be updated
One year after having no increase in tuition and fees, Eastern Michigan University students may see a 3.65 percent increase for the 2011-12 school year.
EMU officials recommended the university’s Board of Regents approve the increase, which would come on the heels of a decision by regents to raise room and board rates by 2.15 percent for the 2011-12 school year.
The increase would help fill an approximately $24 million combined loss from state funding and increased expenses for the coming school year. The general fund operating budget for the 2011-12 school year would be $281.4 million, if approved.
The tuition and fees increase would cost an undergraduate student taking 30 credit hours in a school year approximately $8,683, a $306 increase from the 2010-11 school year.
EMU chief financial officer John Lumm said administration had worked very hard to limit tuition increases and keep cuts away from students.
“The budget was developed with a large focus on students, both in terms of minimizing the tuition increase and also by ensuring the efficiency actions being implemented do not impact students in the classroom,” Lumm said.
Regents will vote on the proposed increase at the regular meeting, which begins at 4 p.m.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
chefbrian1
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 9:58 p.m.
Thank you Governor Snyder for raising my tuition!!! Snyder and his Repubs dished out a 1.7 Billion college aid gutting business tax cut (gift) to "create jobs," which will simply not happen. Large businesses who will receive most of the benefit will most likely horde their cash or distribute it out of state to stare holders. For the Mom and Pop who gets some of this tax cut, they will be paying for it with increase tuition and local taxes to pay for the cuts to k-12 and college. They might even loose money on the deal. What this budget means to me and all EMU students is that I am out of $306 from this college student tax. And this is just the beginning. If Robs numbers are correct, we are still $3.4 million short. Teachers are being asked to take a cut, which is what I assume Rob Pollard's comments are referring too. So there might be a strike to look forward too this fall. Is the administration taking a pay cut too??? I doubt it. So where will the $3.4 million come from? Maybe the business owners will pay some of their tax cut to donate to colleges? Don't hold your breath. The talk around campus is go after the sports program for the funds I picture teachers with torches and pitch forks chasing the Eastern Eagle Swoop out of town.
Rob Pollard
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 8:16 p.m.
Well, that will raise roughly $8 million dollars ($306 x 23,000 students plus a bit more b/c some students are out-of-state or grad students) - at most 1/3 of the budget hole Pres. Martin stated was there. Or to look at it another way - Snyder took away $11.4 million, and Martin didn't even replace that with this request. Perhaps she's counting on some explosive student growth b/c EMU will be the lowest tuition raisers around for the second straight year, but with last year's, 0-0-0, student count increased only about 3%, it certainly won't be dramatic (and who knows how much of that increase in students last year was due to the 0%? Probably some, but I mean WMU was up 2% in student growth last year and their tuition increase was 3% higher than EMU). Looks like she is getting ready to go to the mattresses with the faculty and staff to get the rest of the money. I'm afraid this is going to get ugly.
John B.
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 8:36 p.m.
"Looks like she is getting ready to go to the mattresses with the faculty and staff to get the rest of the money. I'm afraid this is going to get ugly." Thanks. I am thinking pretty much the same thing now.... $24 Million (now perhaps $16 M or so, after the tuition increase) is a large gap to fill, especially if the athletic Dept. gets only a small cut. We shall see.
John B.
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 7:52 p.m.
I am surprised that the proposed increase is this low, especially after last year's non-increase. I applaud EMU for this, and hope they can function well enough with an increase that is this small. Does anyone know how much of the budget shortfall this will recoup?
mightywombat
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 9:23 p.m.
18,245 undergrads (wikipedia) * $306 / year increase = 5.58 million increased revenue total loss of funding of $24 million from state and federal sources (article above) they're still missing quite a bit of cash!
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Jun 21, 2011 : 8:02 p.m.
John, I will find that out.