Regents pass 5 percent tuition hike

The eyes of the students, faculty and staff of all of the institutions of higher education were on the Flathead Community College campus in Kalispell, where the Board of Regents was meeting this morning to talk about budget issues, particularly tuition.

The board, following a suggestion from Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns, were on the verge of passing a 5 percent raise in tuition each year in the biennium for all of the four-year institutions in the state, including Montana State University-Northern.

Since the end of the legislative session about a month ago, which cut several million dollars for the Montana University System in the next biennium, talk across the state has centered around how the schools would make up for these cuts, and how much of that would be passed on to students.

For Montana State University-Northern, this change will see tuition raise $79.46, from $1,589.28 to $1,668.74 in 2012; then raise $83.44, from $1,668.74 to $1,752.18.

Under the plan, Montana State University's main campus in Bozeman will see increases of $120, from $2,418 to $2,538, in 2012 and $127.85, from $2,538 to $2,665.85, in 2013.

At the University of Montana in Missoula, tuition will increase in 2012 by $99.15, from $1,983 to $2,082.15, and in 2013 by about $104, from $2,082.15 to $2,186.15.

MSU President Waded Cruzado and UM President Royce Engstrom spoke to the board in support of Stearns' recommendation, saying that the proposal balances the quality expected while keeping that quality as affordable as possible.

Tyler Wines, president of Montana Associated Students, said that he and other student leadership were shown an increase of only 3 percent a few weeks ago and had not heard what Stearns proposed, which they still had concerns about and could not support.

He and other student leadership wanted to know if this increase would be guaranteeing maintaining the same level of service.

Stearns and Board Chair Clayton Christian said it would not, that accounting for all of the inflationary cost increases, would demand double-digit increases.

"I don't think we can fill up the hole that was left," Christian said. "But I think we need to be careful not to over-burden any one biennium.

"We should continue with these moderate increases."

The community colleges raised their tuition by a few percent as well.

Dawson Community College raised the tuition $38.25, from $783 to $821.25, for 2012 and will hold that rate through 2013.

Flathead Community College raised tuition $28, from $330 to $358.

"I have no problem with these increases," Regent Lynn Hamilton said. "I think our campuses need to maintain quality service and these changes reflect that need."

The Centers of Technology across the state will not see any tuition increases.

The regents also discussed raising mandatory students fees.

All of the schools in the state, except the Helena Center of Technology, increased student fees for the next biennium.

Of all of the four-year campuses in the system, MSU-Northern has the lowest fee increase, with a. 6 percent increase each year, $3.88 for 2012 and $3.96 for 2013.

The next lowest is Bozeman, with a 1.39 percent increase of $9.13 in 2012 and 1.77 percent increase of $11.95 in 2013.

The highest fee increase is in UM Western, with a 7.89 percent increase of $36.45 in 2012 and only a 1.65 percent increase of $8.70 in 2013.

No campus had a fee increase of more than 3 percent in both years of the biennium.