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Tech Budget Proposal Goes to the Board
For more information on this story contact:
CONTACT INFORMATION: For more information, contact Bill Curnow, 487-2354, wjcurnow@mtu.edu
Dean Woodbeck and Marcia Goodrich are out of the office.
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(June 16, 2003)--Michigan Technological University President Curt Tompkins will present a balanced budget to the University's Board of Control June 25. The budget includes significant internal cost cutting in the wake of an expected 10 percent decline in support from the State of Michigan, and will include a $2.9 million or 27 percent increase in financial aid to students.
The plan includes a total overhaul of Michigan Tech’s tuition and fee structure, which would actually decrease tuition for part-time and some full-time students. Those taking 12 credits or less would see their charges reduced from $241 to $230 per credit hour. The budget calls for a 6.3 percent decline in fees and a modest 5.37 percent increase in room and board.
While tuition and fee charges vary, under the State formula for defining full-time status, Tech students will see a 14.2 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees under the re-engineered program. Currently, full-time students pay a flat rate of tuition, with freshmen and sophomores paying less than juniors and seniors. Under Tompkins' proposal, all undergraduates would be billed based on the number of credits they take each semester, at the rate of $230 per credit. In addition, the proposal would institute a surcharge of $400 per semester for students majoring in engineering and computer science programs.
Freshmen would not pay the surcharge.
"We are trying to implement a fairer system," Tompkins said. "Providing a top-quality education in engineering and computer science is very expensive. It costs significantly less to provide a similar quality education to students in other fields."
Based on the minimum full-time credit load of 12 credits, the in-state tuition for freshmen in all disciplines would decrease 4.7 percent, from $6,455 to $6,150. The tuition and fees for upper-division engineering and computer science students would increase 3.3 percent, from $6,727 to $6,950, while the bill for upper-division students in other disciplines would decrease 8.6 percent, from $6,727 to $6,150.
The more credits students take, the higher their tuition would be. Among Michigan-resident students taking 15 credits, freshmen in all disciplines would see an increase of 16.7 percent, from $6,455 to $7,530. Tuition bills for upper-division engineering students would increase 23.8 percent, from $6,727 to $8,330, with other upper-division students receiving an 11.9 percent increase, from $6,727 to $7,530.
MTU BUDGET RECOMMENDATION
The new tuition structure offers benefits to nontraditional students, particularly those on a budget. It allows students working their way through school to spread their education out over a longer time period while not paying for more than the courses in which they are actually enrolled.
And the new system would also discourage the common practice of students enrolling in more courses than they can comfortably handle and then dropping one class half way through the semester. This can be detrimental when classes fill up and other students who need to take the course are unable to enroll.
The $117 million general fund budget draft assumes a 10 percent reduction in the University's state appropriation, from the $55.1 million budgeted in 2002-03 to $49.6 million.
Under Tompkins' draft budget, the University would reduce general fund expenditures by $6.5 million by instituting cuts of up to 7.2 percent in academic units and up to 10 percent in other areas. This fiscal year, the University has eliminated 64 positions, primarily through attrition.
The proposal provides $2 million, an overall increase of approximately 3 percent, for salary and wage hikes for faculty and staff. Merit raises are under consideration for nonunion employees. Most MTU employees have received only a 1.5 percent total increase over the past two years.
"My highest priority is to assure compensation increases for our high-quality faculty and staff," Tompkins said. "We have not provided competitive salary and wage increases during the past several years." The University risks losing some of its finest employees if it fails to compensate them fairly for their efforts, he said.
Tompkins derived his recommendations from a report issued by the Budget Reduction Advisory Committee, a group of faculty and staff which has been developing a variety of budget alternatives as the University copes with reductions in revenues from the state. For more information, visit http://www.mtu.edu/budget |
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