Most chancellors oppose freeze
The Board of Curators also approved a rule change and named the Life Sciences Center after Sen. Kit Bond.
Published Oct. 11, 2005
Two of the four UM system's chancellors said they would oppose a proposal to freeze tuition at a meeting with the Board of Curators on Friday.
University of Missouri-Rolla Chancellor John Carney voiced concerns about how the proposal would affect students who spend more than four years in college.
Tuition likely would increase after a freeze, Carney said.
Under a tuition freeze, students would pay a locked rate instead of being charged for each class.
University of Missouri-Kansas City Interim Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle shared reservations about the program, because a large number of UMKC students attend college part-time or have transferred from other schools.
The only campus that expressed an interest in the proposal was the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Chancellor Tom George said that UMSL does not oppose the proposal and suggested that locked-rate tuition could be an option for some students.
MU Chancellor Brady Deaton did not attend the meeting.
Craig Kleine, chairman of the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, a student-lobbying group, presented reasons for opposing the locked-rate tuition plan at the meeting.
"ASUM opposes any effort to freeze tuition prices due to the lack of flexibility it offers," Kleine said.
Kleine said that if tuition had been locked for this year, rates would have risen by 12 percent for incoming freshmen.
Kleine also stressed that the transition from one tuition model to another would be costly. He said the University of Minnesota set aside $200 million to help the transition to locked-rate tuition.
MU spokesman Scott Charton spoke about President Elson Floyd's tuition listening tour, which visited 14 sites across the state to discuss locked-rate tuition. Charton said audiences demanded stability and accountability from state appropriations in order for the proposal to work.
"At multiple meetings, people asked what made us so much smarter than them in predicting what our expenses will be, perhaps five years down the road," Charton said.
Floyd will discuss his official report on locked-rate tuition at the Board of Curators meeting on Dec. 1 at UMKC.
The board also voted to remove the requirement that a person be retired or deceased before having a campus building named for them. The change was necessary to rename the Life Sciences Center after U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.
The board also authorized a 25,000-square foot addition to Schweitzer Hall. The Board of Curators agreed to spend $473,600 for an architect to design the addition.
The curators put off authorizing funding for construction until plans are in place.
"I've been told the December Board of Curators meeting will spend a significant amount of time on development and fundraising," said Maria Curtis, the student representative to the board.
Some of the bonds will consolidate debt incurred by MU Health Care in the '90s.
The UM system has about $157 million in debt from MU Health Care, said Nikki Krawitz, vice president of finance and administration. With the bond sale, that debt would be added to the university facilities debt, and one interest rate will be applied to all debt.
Krawitz said that consolidating the debt would save the university $800,000 per year during the 20-year life of the bonds.
About $111 million of the bonds will be for construction at the UM system's four campuses.