Curators to increase tuition

By Allie Blood

Published April 4, 2008

ROLLA — The UM system’s governing board met Thursday to discuss student tuition and enrollment for the next school year on the campus of Missouri University of Science and Technology.

The board gave initial support to raising tuition by 4.1 percent for the 2009 school year, and will vote on the increase in full session today. That percentage is in accordance with inflation and cost of living.

If approved, a student who is a Missouri resident would see a $9.70 increase in tuition per credit hour. A nonresident would see a $24.20 increase per credit hour. For full-time students this translates to $291 and $726 per semester, respectively.

The board did not move to raise by a percentage greater than the Consumer Price Index, but they have in previous years because of the inflated costs of information technology, libraries, facilities and labor, but a law passed last year restricts tuition increases to the rate of inflation.

Nikki Krawitz, UM system vice president of finance and administration, presented the budget, citing all of the operational costs of the universities.

“It’s this part of the budget that drives the tuition decision,” Krawitz said.

Before the Finance and Audit Committee, Krawitz reported that despite rising costs of tuition, enrollment has been steady over the past 10 years — especially with respect to minorities and low-income families — because of Pell Grants and Access Missouri Grants.

But MST Student Financial Aid Director Robert Whites said the aid from those two grant programs is often not sufficient to cover the cost of education.

“As a financial aid director, I hate to see tuition go up, but it’s necessary,” Whites said.

According to Whites, a family of four with one student in college can make a maximum of $35,000 to qualify for a Pell Grant. The Access Missouri Grants give between $1,000 and $1,800 to families making up to $80,000.

“We have 1,200 of our students receiving Missouri Access Grants,” Whites said.

Curator Warren Erdman said he wanted more information on how many families were covered under the Access Missouri Grant because he believes the burden of tuition falls heavily on middle-income families who need to take out student loans.

“We charged the committee to report to us in the fall, but part of the solution is bringing attention to the problem,” he said.

Erdman said that because families pay interest on their loans, the actual cost of tuition is much higher than the sticker price.

The board also discussed future student enrollment trends. Steve Graham, UM system interim vice president for academic affairs, said important factors in enrollment trends are the decreasing numbers of high school graduates in the Midwest, increasing numbers of high school graduates choosing to begin at community colleges and increasing dependency on student loans. Because the population of Missouri is aging, there are fewer students, he said. Other changes include greater diversity on campuses and more students from lower socioeconomic status attending universities.

A panel of representatives from all four UM system schools gave reports on how their campuses were coping with the changing demographic.

UM-Kansas City Admissions Director Jennifer DeHaemers said UMKC is attempting to increase out-of-state admissions from areas where the population of graduates is steadier than in Missouri.

“We are working on a scholarship matching program,” DeHaemers said.

Ann Korschgen, MU vice provost for enrollment management, said MU would continue its efforts with recruitment representatives in Chicago and Dallas, but recent years have been very successful for MU.

“Since 2000 we’ve had a 45 percent increase in black students, 60 percent increase in Hispanic students and 41 percent increase in out-of-state students,” Korschgen said.