Board of Regents Approves Mid-Year Tuition Increase

January 23, 2003

Board of Regents Approves Mid-Year
Tuition Increase

The University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents today approved mid-year tuition increases of up to five percent at nine of the USM's 11 degree-granting institutions. The increases come in response to the latest reduction in the USM's budget. In November, the system's $867 million budget was reduced by $30.4 million. It now must cut an additional $36.6 million, reducing its base budget to $800 million. The November reductions were made without a rise in tuition, but the Regents determined that the new cuts would compromise academic programs unless tuition was increased.

Increase

Complete breakdown of tuition rates.

"We are taking this extraordinary step in order to protect our academic programs and to continue to provide essential services to students," said Board of Regents Chairman Clifford M. Kendall. "Our choice is to raise tuition or abdicate our responsibility to maintain a university system of the highest quality, which is no choice at all."

The tuition increases, which apply to in-state and out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students, will generate approximately $12.9 million or 19 percent of the total budget reduction action taken by the USM this year. Other cost containment measures underway at the USM institutions include a $30 million reduction in salary and wages resulting from the elimination of 198 full-time positions across the system; an employee furlough program instituted at the campus-level of one to four days; a $7.8 million reduction in miscellaneous operating expenses; and a $2.7 million reduction in facilities renewal. The cost of the tuition increase to resident undergraduate students ranges from $76 per semester at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to $115 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

USM Chancellor William E. Kirwan said the mid-year increase is an "unavoidable" result of a fiscal problem that has plagued Maryland and other states for well over a year.

"Unfortunately, the nation's economy continues to lag, while at the same time the demand for high-quality higher education is rapidly on the rise," Kirwan said. "Maryland's revenues are down, but the demands on our colleges and universities have never been greater. We cannot allow a near-term budget problem to do long-term damage to our institutions."

Kirwan said that special provisions will be made for students receiving need-based aid and that institutions would develop flexible payment plans for the new charges.

"We recognize that for some students the increase will cause a significant hardship and that for all students the increase was unanticipated. The institutions' plans for implementing the increase will take this into account."

Two institutions - Coppin State College and the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) - will not impose an increase. Over half of Coppin 's students receive need-based federal financial aid, making a tuition increase an ineffective tool in managing its budget reductions. UMUC's budget is not as dependent on state appropriations as the other USM institutions and consequently it was not as affected by the spending reductions.

University System of Maryland

FY 2003 Revised Non-Resident Undergraduate Rates

Contact:

Chris Hart
Phone: 301/445-2739
E-mail: chart@usmd.edu