Trustees raise tuition to $339 per credit hour
The Board of Trustees approved a 4.6 percent increase in undergraduate tuition at their meeting Thursday.
Students not covered by the CMU Promise, which comprises of about 51.4 percent of Central Michigan University's student body, will pay $339 per credit hour, $15 more per credit hour than the 2008-09 school year.
Students under the CMU Promise will not see a tuition adjustment.
CMU's tuition increase is 0.44 percent lower than the average 2009-10 increase of eight of Michigan's 15 public universities, which is 5.24 percent.
The Board also increased student financial aid by $1.8 million to $27.5 million. About $641,000, or 0.6 percent of the tuition increase, will be designated to the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid for need-based students.
"They wanted additional dollars put toward financial aid," said Interim University President Kathy Wilbur.
She said the step by the Board, proposed by Trustee Sam Kottamasu, is a different approach than what most universities take. Wilbur said financial aid increases usually only mirror tuition increases.
"This Board has moved a little beyond that, putting additional dollars to make sure that if we increase tuition, that it was absolutely focused on need-based," she said.
According to a presentation at the meeting, about 90 percent of first-time students receive some sort of financial aid.
The Board also factored in a 3.26 percent decline in state appropriations in this year's operating budget, and are planning for 5 percent decreases over the next three years.
Trustee Sarah Opperman said CMU would not be able to afford a zero percent increase in tuition with the decline in state appropriations.
"We need to look at a three-to-five year horizon," said Vice President for Finance and Administrative Services David Burdette.
Burdette proposed three different tuition models to the Board, involving 4, 5 and 6 percent increases included in possible operating budgets.
The 2009-10 operating budget is more than $396 million, including the tuition increase and a nearly $9 million increase in faculty and staff salary and benefit adjustments.
Vice chairwoman Stephanie Comai, who chaired the meeting, said the university's utility rates will remain the same.
CMU and other universities will have to look at many different ways to finance university operations, she said, because Michigan has reached its peak of high school graduates.
"We're looking at probably having lower enrollment, which then decreases revenues," she said.
The Board is looking at ways to cut $10 million from the budget over the next five year, Comai said. Options include furlough days, unpaid vacation days, position reductions and layoffs.
"We need to make sure we are looking just as strenuously inside for budget cuts," Opperman said.
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