General fund covers tuition increase
Tweet
After receiving lower than expected appropriations from the state this year, the MSU Board of Trustees voted Friday to increase tuition for spring semester.
Tuition will increase 1.2 percent in the spring, but students won’t notice a difference on their bills until the summer semester. MSU will cover the tuition increase in the spring with money from its general fund.
“Given the economic difficulties and uncertainties, even though our own financial circumstances have worsened since June 2008, we believe in a good faith gesture for families and our students,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said. “There will be an offset in the spring tuition bill to cover that increase for both graduates and undergraduate students.”
In June, tuition increased 6.8 percent for the current semester. The 2008-09 MSU budget assumed a 3 percent increase in state appropriations from the previous year. However, the state only increased funding by 1 percent, resulting in a $5.8 million discrepancy between the expected funds and the actual appropriations. Of that deficit, $2.9 million will be covered by the tuition increase.
Simon said board action in July allowed tuition changes for the spring semester if state appropriations were more or less than expected. Since funding was lower than planned, the board approved the tuition increase.
“Unfortunately, it was something we had to do,” MSU Trustee Don Nugent said.
Right now, an in-state freshman taking 15 credits pays $10,264 in tuition and fees for two semesters. With the increase, tuition will cost $10,387.17 or about $61.59 more per semester.
Although the university will provide an offset for spring tuition increases, parks and recreation junior Jessica Vandevelde said any tuition increase isn’t good.
“I think they have already increased (tuition) enough,” she said. “I think they might be able to slow down spending on new buildings they don’t really need.”
Simon said the university will have to tighten its financial belt in order to cover the tuition offset in the spring. However, higher-than-expected enrollment numbers have provided the university with additional revenue.
“(Enrollments) produced some revenue,” Simon said. “Rather than use that as a cushion against the next storm, or to use it for deferred maintenance or other things, we applied it so that the students benefited this year from that increase in students.”
Commentary
Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed
student
(10/27/08 12:37am)Report
I don’t care about tuition breaks.
I will give a chance to the candidates that make Michigan State University academically better. If they raise tuition…don’t care. If they raise room & board…don’t care. If they give a raise to professors…don’t care…
I don’t care as long as the academics improve, we continue to go up in the rankings, we see better professors & more getting hired, we see changes in technologies inside the classroom…..as long as academics improve: undergraduate & graduate.
I will only be here for 4 years. I came here to study hard, enjoy my college years, and continue to grad school or a job. But I, as most of us, want to see MSU improve.
If you don’t have money and don’t study, leave. I think that education has to be expensive so that student really value their time and their studies. Inexpensive education leads to sloppy students. Also, if you are poor but do your work, your scholarships will come.
I am a Republican in this matter. In these days, education is a necessity not a joke.
Candidates for the board will say that they will lower tuition to get more votes, just as the presidential candidates. But I hope that in their hearts they don’t expect to do it.
GO GREEN!!
Starchaser
(10/27/08 1:51pm)Report
“I think that education has to be expensive so that student really value their time and their studies.”
That goes against the very land grant values on which this fine institution was founded.
student
(10/27/08 3:05pm)Report
I love Michigan State University, its history, and all it stands for.
But, because we are a Land Grant University we have to accept students that do not take their studies seriously and harm the reputation of this great University?
I think what the Founders of MSU, the pioneers of the Land Grant University, meant is that Land Grant Universities exist to provide DESERVING students the OPPORTUNITY to SUCCEED. I don’t think they meant that we are supposed to support and encourage mediocre students.
MIT and Cornell are also Land Grant Institutions. This is evidence of the excellence that Land Grant Univerities pursue everyday of their existence.
MSU has to evolve and adapts its foundations and ideals to the current cultural and societal affairs. We certainly do not have to pay the same tuition of the 1800’s and to raise our level of excellence we also have to increase our level of monetary assets. Excellence doesn’t fall from the sky, it has to be acquired. Every donor, every alumni, every professor, and every person that wants to see MSU excel will tell you this.
MSU is not supposed to be expensive, but it can’t be cheap. Excellence is not cheap. After all, good students excel, earn scholarships, and have a profound impact on society. MSU doesn’t want mediocre students.
GO GREEN!!
student, get your facts straight
(10/28/08 12:22am)Report
There are quite a few students here that are extremely hardworking and since they had financial troubles, had to leave the university. Not everyone has enough money to spend a fifth or sixth year at MSU. Just because you can afford it, that doesn’t mean that what MSU is doing is justified.
Student you're a jerk
(10/28/08 12:42am)Report
Not everyone can afford the extra money this now adds to post graduation debt. Some people don’t come from trust funds and daddy’s credit card they pay for MSU with jobs like Mennas’s or working @ Bdubs for tips or picking up pop cans. I understand that tuition shouldn’t be cheap but when I graduate from State I can say I PAID FOR IT ALL!! Can you say the same? So just because someone else is footing the bill for your tuition doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care. Maybe you should care because the extra money mommy or daddy is paying for tuition could be spent for another one of your drunken Spring Breaks in Cancun which ends with you “hooking up” with a random guy from UMASS and getting a VD. Don’t ask to pull myself up from my bootstraps when you took my boots.
P.S. Go WHITE