Tuition increase comes before curators
The UM system Board of Curators will vote today on a 5 percent tuition increase for next year. The plan was proposed by UM system President Elson Floyd earlier this week.
Published March 24, 2006
ROLLA — The UM system Board of Curators will vote today on a 5 percent tuition increase for next year.
The plan was proposed by UM system President Elson Floyd earlier this week, and is heavily dependent upon the amount of funding the Missouri legislature gives to higher education next year.
Although several curators would not take a position on the proposal prior to the vote, Maria Curtis, the student representative to the board, said the curators accepted the proposal with little opposition.
"I haven't heard any negative feedback from the board," Curtis said.
The tuition increase would raise the price of a 15-credit-hour semester at MU to $6,819 from $6,495.
"We are as comfortable as we can be with a 5 percent increase," Floyd said after the board's meeting Thursday. "That is the low range of possible increases."
The UM system predicted in January that tuition would increase by 6 percent next year. The lower increase was attributed to a drop in the expected mandatory costs, including employee healthcare and building maintenance.
"At our last meeting, we were looking at our other revenue sources and the cost of employee benefits were higher than expected," said Nikki Krawitz, the UM system vice president for finance and administration.
Krawitz said newer figures indicated that the annual cost of employee benefits would be approximately $14.7 million, or 7 percent lower than the $15.8 million the university predicted in January.
UM system spokesman Joe Moore said the board passed a resolution that supports Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to increase higher education funding by 2 percent, or $17 million.
"Dr. Floyd has said we would not be able to make only a 5 percent increase without that contribution," Moore said.
A $10-per-credit-hour facilities fee that the board discussed at its meeting in January was not proposed at the meeting.
"It didn't make it through the agenda process," Curtis said.
The board also will vote on two new fees that might apply to some MU students. The curators will vote today on a $10-per-credit-hour lab fee for some science courses and a $32-per-credit-hour fee for architecture courses.