What can Auburn students expect?
The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees: approved last week for tuition increases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama. Jonathan Sutton / PHOTO STAFF
The University of Alabama System trustees voted Saturday to increase tuition for the medical schools at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the College of Community Health and Sciences at the University of Alabama.
The tuition costs will increase 10 percent for the School of Optometry, 12 percent for the School of Medicine and 15 percent for the School of Dentistry at UAB, adding thousands of dollars to tuition costs.
These increases will go into effect in July.
“I wish we didn’t have to do it, but I feel it’s completely justified,” said university system trustee Peter Lowe. “We have to keep paying good professors and giving the students the best education.”
The University of Alabama trustee system is comprised of 16 members; two people from each congressional district, as well as Gov. Bob Riley and Joseph Morton, the state superintendent of education.
The increase was approved as a proactive measure in anticipation of state education funding reduction.
According to the Department of Finance, Riley’s education budget was approximately $6.7 billion.
Riley’s proposed education budget for the 2009 fiscal year is $6.3 billion, which will result in a 2.77 percent fund reduction for K-12 and a 12.55 percent reduction for higher education, including both two and four-year institutions.
“Gov. Riley has proposed a balanced budget — a fair budget,” said Todd Stacy, deputy press secretary for the governor. “If revenue allowed, Gov. Riley would certainly have liked to increase funding for Higher Education as he has in the past, but that’s not possible. When there are limited resources, difficult decisions have to be made. Gov. Riley believes that critical K-12 programs like the Alabama Reading Initiative, the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative and ACCESS Distance Learning are just too valuable to do without — especially when universities have other sources of funding.”
The House is expected to take Bill HB319 this week, then it will travel to the Senate for approval.
President Jay Gogue said he will not know anything until later in the legislative session, but said “tuition rates will not be set until the legislators complete their work.”
The legislative session ends May 16.
“What we’ve argued for is fairness in the education pipeline,” Gogue said. “We probably won’t win that argument, but if we could get that 14 percent down to eight or nine percent, that would be good.”
Gogue said the budget cut would cost Auburn approximately $60 million dollars from the University and Auburn University at Montgomery. He added the cuts would cost the University of Alabama System approximately $82 million, explaining its system has a bigger base, controlling the University of Alabama, the UAB and the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
“Any tuition increase must be approved by the Board of Trustees,” said Mike Reynolds, executive director of student financial services.
Stacy said the proposed funding reductions shouldn’t have an influence on tuition costs.
“Some will tell you that these funding reductions will cause tuition hikes,” Stacy said. “But, as every college student should know, universities received funding increases for three straight years and still raised tuition, so that’s just not valid.“
Reynolds said Auburn is faced with the same budget cuts as the other universities in the state.
“If they are approved, Auburn would have to react with some type of increase,” Reynolds said.
