Tuition freeze plan may melt under budget heat

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April 8, 2010

MSSU students could see fee hike in fall

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Thu Apr 08, 2010, 10:01 PM CDT

Jim Moss 4/8/10 pullout at bottom

By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

Missouri Southern State University officials say they may have no choice but to consider raising tuition if state lawmakers are unable to authorize a deal that would freeze tuition in exchange for limiting cuts to next year’s higher education budget.

Tuition is now $143 per credit hour at MSSU. Officials said they might have to consider an increase of something less than 3 percent for students next fall, if the Missouri Legislature is unable to approve a budget that would cap cuts to higher education at no more than $50 million for 2010-11. The Globe’s efforts to obtain a specific estimate on the dollar amount of the increase that might be necessary were unsuccessful.

The chairman of MSSU’s Board of Governors said a potential tuition increase will likely be discussed during the board’s meeting on Friday, April 16.

Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed holding cuts to higher education funding to no more than $50 million next fiscal year in exchange for colleges and universities keeping tuition flat.

“I think we have got to look at that if (legislators) do not follow the deal with the governor on what we agreed to in cuts,” Rod Anderson, MSSU board chairman, said in a phone interview Thursday. “We could take action on the basis of if the deal is broken. If negotiations stay where they keep the deal, then the increase could be voided out.”

For the 2010-11 school year, the tuition cap would be just less than 3 percent, though universities could request a waiver from state higher education officials to charge more.

The board of Missouri State University at Springfield is to consider a tuition increase of 2.6 percent during its regular meeting today.

Anderson said universities are required by law to not raise tuition more than the Consumer Price Index per year, unless they specifically request a waiver from the Missouri higher education commissioner.

He said he does not believe Missouri Southern would seek such a waiver even if the deal between colleges and the governor falls through.

Students’ take

For MSSU freshman Reggie Neal, an increase could be too much for him to afford.

“Tuition is already high for out-of-state students anyway, so it would really mess things up for me and a lot of others,” he said. “I’m already thinking about leaving.”

Fellow freshmen Carmen Bradford and Elizabeth Moua said that even though they receive in-state tuition rates, an increase would be a burden.

“I’m paying for school myself, getting grants and financial aid,” Bradford said. “I still have to pay back the loans. In the long run it would impact me, but not so much right now.”

“My financial aid covers about $2,000 for each semester,” Moua said. “So I can only afford 14 hours (per semester).”

President’s position

The Globe’s efforts to obtain direct comment on the possible tuition increase from MSSU President Bruce Speck were unsuccessful.

Speck left a message on a Globe reporter’s answering machine Wednesday, after a request for an interview that the Globe submitted to Rod Surber, head of university relations and marketing.

“There really isn’t much I can say,” Speck said in the message. “I know the Senate essentially took more money from higher education, which would break the deal (on a tuition freeze). That has to go, I understand, to conference with the House.

“If indeed they come out of that and the deal is broken, I suspect most of the universities would go ahead and try to charge (an increase in) the tuition. I think it was 2.7 percent. However, that’s a decision the Board of Governors makes, and the board would have to determine then if they were going to do that or not.”

Anderson said the board is awaiting direction from Speck about whether to act on a potential tuition increase at the April board meeting or postpone a final decision until the board’s next meeting in May.

Attempts to reach Speck for clarification and follow-up were unsuccessful. A message was left with Speck’s secretary at 10 a.m. Thursday. The Globe checked back with the secretary before noon, and was told that Speck had received the message and did not intend to return the phone call. The secretary said to direct any follow-up requests to Surber.

State issues

The $50 million threshold for higher education cutbacks was a compromise between Nixon and the presidents and chancellors of the state’s colleges and universities. In exchange, publicly funded higher education institutions agreed not to raise tuition.

A budget proposal from the state House of Representatives honors that pledge, but the Senate Appropriations Committee plan calls for $64.8 million in cuts to help balance the budget.

The budget endorsed by the committee is to go before the full Senate next week. It then must be reconciled with the version already approved by the House.

State Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, said the problem for legislators and the governor lies in reconciling roughly a $500 million shortfall for next fiscal year.

“This much is a certainty: The budget that came out of the House is still out of balance,” said Nodler. “So if you’re going to try to produce the balanced budget, there’s only so many places you can take money from. I’m sure they’re looking at all of them.”

Nixon’s response

Speaking on Wednesday at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Nixon said the state’s public colleges and universities “should be rewarded for coming forward” last fall in a bid to stave off further cuts, according to a report from The Associated Press.

“I’ll do everything within my power — and I don’t consider that power insubstantial — to make sure we live up to that deal,” he said.

The state is now facing cuts of nearly $126 million and the elimination of 1,000 state jobs announced in March.

The emergency cuts are aimed at coping with an expected $500 million shortfall in the 2011 budget proposal released in January, Nixon said.

Scott Holste, a spokesman for Nixon’s office, said the governor remains committed to the tuition-freeze plan.

“Gov. Nixon believes that freezing tuition for Missouri students for a second year in a row is vitally important, as Missouri rebounds out of this economy,” Holste said in an e-mail response to the Globe. “Gov. Nixon will strongly urge legislators to uphold the tuition freeze deal when it goes before the conference committee.”

Final decision

The final decision on higher education funding will be made by the Legislature. The governor can make further cuts from the budget but cannot add funding. A budget must be presented to Gov. Jay Nixon’s office by the first week of May.