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July 21, 2005
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| Students supporting the 7 percent tuition cap made up a large part of the standing-room-only gathering at the MnSCU Board of Trustees meeting. (MPR Photo/Art Hughes) |
St. Paul, Minn. — Winona State University student Laura Berens welcomed the last-minute ceiling on tuition hikes. Berens is a third-year nursing student and treasurer of Winona's student association. She said not only will it help her pay for school, it also sends a strong message.
"The 7 percent, it gives enough leeway for the universities, but it also shows the stance that the students aren't going to just take whatever tuition increase the presidents of all the universities throw at us," Berens said.
The chair of the Minnesota State University Student Association, Hal Kimball, also praised the idea. He told the Board of Trustees the institutions need to find a better balance, as state money for higher education diminishes.
"Raising tuition should not be the automatic or only response to not receiving the state appropriation desired by our campuses," Kimball said.
Even with the cap, MnSCU students will be paying additional tuition and fees of up to $355 this year. The tuition cap received unanimous support from the Board of Trustees. Clarence Hightower, who heads the board's finance committee, says capping the tuition is a reasonable compromise between the financial needs of students and their schools.
"I don't know that we've gotten it right," Hightower told his colleagues. "As a matter of fact I don't know if we ever get this right. You do the best that you can -- I believe this motion will do that."
All but one of the system's four-year universities planned increases of more than 7 percent. In all, 20 institutions originally proposed higher tuition hikes. The cap brings the average increase for all the colleges and universities from about 6.5 percent to 5.8 percent.
While the students are claiming victory, the administration, faculty and staff at many of the campuses are now trying to fill a sudden shortfall of money.
Karen Foreman works at the Minnesota State University-Mankato campus, and is a representative for the Association of Federal, State and Municipal Employees union. Foreman worries some administrators will lay off workers to plug the gap. She told the board the decision will force budget cuts and it's too late in the process to make them easily.
"It's 90 percent there," Foreman said. "The plans have been made, the classes have been scheduled, the staff and faculty have been hired. Everything is there. So the ship is kind of gone."
The tuition cap deals a particular blow to Winona State, which is launching an ambitious plan to expand and improve course offerings. As a result, tuitions at Winona were slated to increase more than 10 percent this fall.
The trustees voted down a proposal to allow Winona special permission to exceed the cap. The trustees' decision reduced the university's budget next year by some $1.2 million.
Winona State President Judith Ramaley got the news her third day on the job. She said she's not sure yet how to fix the shortfall, but she's still committed to following through with the initiative, named the "Winona Experience."
"At this point an educated guess would say it will put us off our original timeline by perhaps a year, depending on what happens in fiscal year '07," said Ramaley.
Ramaley said she'll also have to work harder to justify the Winona Experience initiative, and the funding it will require, to those who have a stake in it.
"I have many conversations ahead of me, faculty and staff, student leadership, community leadership, the broader community to help explain what this means, why it's important, why now and what difference it will make. So we can have the kind of buy-in that will be essential for the experience itself," said Ramaley.
Tuition increases vary widely in the MnSCU system, from $126 at Anoka-Ramsey Community College to $355 at Bemidji State University. Average annual tuition for the four-year universities is about $5,300.
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