The University's new tuition and fee structure, adopted Friday by the Board of Trustees, could complement the state's proposed education budget, approved only two days earlier by the Alabama House panel in Montgomery. Beginning this summer, tuition for a full-time, in-state undergraduate will be $3,950 per fall and spring semesters and will be the same for students taking 12 to 15 hours. Students taking 16 or more credit hours now will pay approximately $300 more because of the built-in tuition increase, said Marcie Smith, associate vice president of business and finance.
However, tuition per hour and the included registration fee will be the same year-round. "Some students will see benefits this summer because the new tuition structure will charge less money for 10 or fewer credit hours," Smith said. Because the department has received complaints from students and parents regarding the cost of summer tuition, it has consolidated fees to present tuition in a clearer format. "Without all the additional fees, tuition charges will be a lot easier to understand," Smith said. "The consolidated registration fee actually includes things students know they're being assessed for."
Before, out-of-state students had to pay triple the in-state registration fee, but the single fee nowpays for things such as the transit system, athletic fee, wellness center and student activities fees. "The out-of-state students will pay only one fee, $446, to support those elements, so they get a break, especially in summer," Smith said. Until now, Auburn's tuition and fee structure has been the same for the last 40 years, Smith said. "The tuition restructuring has been a topic for many years because the old structure was not easily understood, summer school was more expensive, charged additional fees for taking more than 15 hours for courses and charged extra for students taking additional courses online," Smith said.
Barry Burkhart, longtime professor of psychology, recalls when tuition was more affordable. "When I was in college, tuition cost $100 per term, so I could work and pay my way through school," Burkhart said. "These days, universities have become less accessible because most kids can't afford to pay for their educations anymore." However, because Auburn began planning to reorganize tuition and fees years before the economic slump began, the University continues to make efforts and adjustments --even under the state's proposed 2011 budget--to help students afford higher education. Meanwhile, Alabama's projected education budget will spend $5.48 billion from the Education Trust Fund, which is a difference of $169.6 million from this year's spending.
"The increase is not an increase at all, but a reinstatement of funds that had been prorated," said Craig Pouncey, assistant state superintendent of education. "The $169 million will simply back-fill what local school systems had to pick up because of proration." The Education Trust Fund is the state's largest fund and primarily consists of sales and income taxes, Pouncey said. "(Auburn's) new structure will not result in less money received, and it has incentives that will provide less tuition for some students," Smith said. "Overall, it will result in a tuition increase that probably would have happened regardless because of the state budget cuts." For Burkhart, these proration periods and allocation of taxes inhibit long-term planning opportunities for Auburn.
"Alabama's tax system isn't a staple for education because it depends too much on sales tax," Burkhart said. "Until Alabama reforms its tax structure, its education budget is tied to the economy, so when the economy declines, the education system suffers." Pouncey said that most entities included in the ETF budget will be subjected to the same level of funding they received this year, which was an appropriation prorated 7-and-one-half percent. "Universities, community colleges and K-12 school systems are having to consider the necessary reductions in their budgets to match their anticipated (Fiscal Year 2011) allocations," Pouncey said. For University employees the proposed budget will provide the same level of state support toward health insurance and retirement contributions as this year's budget, Pouncey said.
"This is very likely to result in the individual employees having to pick up a greater share of their monthly fees to offset the ever-increasing cost of health care," Pouncey said. The state's budget situation is a problem for Auburn because of increasing costs related to health care and teachers' retirement, Smith said. "At the local level, Auburn will go three to four years without raises or hiring new faculty," Burkhart said. "Departments with high numbers of retirees will be left shorthanded, and classes that students need won't be offered." Because proration is a one-time occurrence, financial recovery is easier than managing permanent budget reductions, Smith said.
"If this 7-and-one-half percent proration becomes permanent, that's almost $100 million in permanent state appropriation cuts," Smith said. The finance department has prepared for the projected 2011 budget with cost-cutting measures and budget reductions. "The bottom line is that there's less money, like investment income, endowment earnings and state appropriations, to work with," Smith said, "so Auburn is exploring new revenue sources and finding ways to trim costs so that budget cuts won't impact the academic units as drastically as other areas."
The budget proposal must be voted on and passed by a majority of the House of Representatives so it can be forwarded to the Senate, Pouncey said. The Senate's Finance and Taxation Committee will have to approve the proposal before the senate can vote, and a majority must be reached before submitting for the governor's signature "This process could very easily take the next three weeks to complete," Pouncey said.
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