NEWS | October 14, 2003

Tuition and Fees
Proposed hikes less than those at area schools
Administrators say they don’t expect increases to scare students from UTA.

By Chris Baggott
The Shorthorn staff

Administrators believe few students will choose to leave the university for financial reasons because a proposed tuition increase is less than at some other area universities.

Interim Provost Dana Dunn said the proposed increase was made after carefully examining what other universities had proposed or approved.

“As we developed the proposal and evaluated it, we looked at total fee and tuition structure,” Dr. Dunn said.

During the last legislative session, lawmakers changed the way universities get money from the state, resulting in funding shortages. As a result, UTA has proposed a designated tuition increase of $15 per credit hour in the spring and an additional $20-per-credit-hour increase for next fall.

Many universities in the area had to increase tuition to make up for the reduced state funding. UT-Dallas saw a significant loss in funding this year, said Laurence Redlinger, UT-Dallas’ executive director of strategic planning and analysis.

He said the university would have received $65.2 million under the old legislation, but with the changes received $54.8 million.

“We got shorted about $11 million and then got zapped in other ways,” Dr. Redlinger said.

A proposal to increase UT-Dallas’ tuition will still not generate enough to make up the university’s deficit, Redlinger said. The UT-Dallas proposal, sent to Austin on Monday, calls for a designated tuition increase of $18 per credit hour in the spring and an additional $23 per-credit-hour increase next fall. Currently, UT-Dallas charges $46 per credit hour.

These increases are for undergraduates only, Redlinger said. Graduate students at the university will see an increase of $18 per credit hour in the spring and then another $18 per-credit-hour increase next fall.

Redlinger said the proposed increase would not make up for the university’s funding losses. With the state’s cut came a 22 percent growth at UT-Dallas, he added.

“That’s $10.4 million in revenue that evaporated,” he said. “A tuition increase ain’t gonna cover it.”

Dunn said UTA will not support a robust increase in advertising for the university because it is expensive and unnecessary. Enrollment is high, she said, and she doubts the university will see a large loss of students because of tuition increases.

“I don’t believe that we will see significant flow of students to other institutions,” Dunn said. “Other institutions are proposing comparable or greater increases or already have higher tuition.”

Texas Women’s University, for example, is already more expensive than UTA and is raising its rates.

TWU lost about $4.48 million in revenue this year, said Roy Krown, the school’s news and information director.

“Tuition increase doesn’t really make up all of that,” he said. “It’ll only generate about $1.5 million in additional revenue.”

TWU has had a huge increase in enrollment this semester, Krown said. The university saw an enrollment of 9,705, more than 1,000 additional students than they had last fall, he added.

Krown said the university is raising its tuition by $15 per credit hour in the spring to help the university absorb as much of its losses as possible. Designated tuition at TWU will increase from $92 per credit hour to $107 per credit hour.

The students “weren’t too thrilled about an increase in tuition, but they understood that the money was needed,” Krown said.

He said TWU has been focusing its marketing efforts in the Metroplex to try to draw more students to the university. He said there are no plans to target the Arlington area but some marketing would be done.

“It’s an overall Metroplex effort,” he said. “About 85 percent of our students come from a 50-mile radius around Denton, and that includes Arlington.”

The University of North Texas shows a lower increase, raising its rates by $7 per credit hour in the fall. Students currently pay $46 per credit hour. But nearly $150 in fees for a full-time, 12-credit-hour student will be tacked on to compensate. Deborah Leliaert, vice president for university relations, said UNT has hit a record high, creating problems in funding the expanding student body.

Leliaert said the university is raising its tuition by less than many in the area because many UNT students work and can’t afford large increases. She did not comment on the raised fees.

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