The University will increase tuition for students by 5 percent starting in the 2009-10 school year — a decision that was awaiting approval from the legislation.
After state lawmakers on the joint budget committee approved the tuition hikes Monday, Chancellor Michael Martin told The Daily Reveille the Baton Rouge campus will increase tuition by the approved amount.
“We hate to have to pass these costs onto the students,” Martin said. “But hopefully it will help us retain quality.”
Martin said the increase will bring an added $5 million revenue to the University’s budget.
The tuition increase had already been approved by the Board of Supervisors and was only waiting on approval from the Legislature, said LSU System Spokesman Charles Zewe.
The University is also supportive of both bills on the Legislature’s agenda this week that would amend the University’s authority over tuition and fees, Martin said.
House Bill 511 would give public universities the tuition and fee authority currently held by the Legislature and Senate Bill 183 would give universities authority over academic fees.
Martin said if the constitution is amended, Louisiana would join all other states with the exception of Florida on how tuition increases are decided.The increases will raise $29 million to help offset state budget cuts proposed for the schools next year.
State lawmakers on the joint budget committee approved the tuition hikes Monday. That was the only legislative approval needed for the increases to take effect for the 2009-10 school year.
At four-year schools, the largest tuition hike will be $254 annually for students at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus. The largest annual increase at the two-year campuses is $93 at Baton Rouge Community College and at Nunez Community College.Students at some campuses will face other new charges besides tuition increases, including planned boosts in housing, energy, food and health care fees at various campuses. Leaders for the LSU and University of Louisiana systems said more fee hikes may be proposed depending on the size of next year’s budget cuts, which lawmakers are still considering.
“Basically, everybody’s waiting to see how bad the budget is,” LSU System President John Lombardi told The Associated Press.
Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed a $2.6 billion higher education budget for next year, with about $220 million in cuts to colleges, to help balance the budget amid a $1.3 billion decline in state general fund revenue.
Lawmakers in the House working on next year’s budget have whittled those cuts by $60 million. With the $30 million in tuition increases, that would leave colleges with cuts of about $130 million, unless lawmakers shift more money to the schools.
University system chiefs said the reductions would force them to increase class sizes, cut programs, shrink student services and lay off faculty and staff.
Senators on the budget committee voted 6-3 for the tuition increases while House members agreed unanimously. Lawmakers questioned whether students will be able to afford the increases and whether the tuition and fee hikes will price some people out of college.
“This is a tax on students to fill a need higher education has, so we’re between a rock and a hard place,” Rep. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, who left the committee room before the vote on the tuition increases was taken, told the AP.
The tuition increases will cost the state’s free college tuition program known as TOPS about $7 million next year, money already included in next year’s budget proposal.BILLS BEING CONSIDERED THIS WEEK
In addition to the discussion of House Bill 511 on Tuesday and Senate Bill 183 on Wednesday, several bills affecting LSU will be considered by Legislature this week, according to a broadcast e-mail from the Public Affairs Department.
House Bill 27 will be considered by the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice on Tuesday. The bill by Rep. Ernest Wooton would allow concealed handgun permit holders to carry concealed weapons on campus.On Wednesday, the House Municipal and Parochial Affairs Committee will discuss House Bill 465, which would help provide funding for additional security in the South Burbank Crime Prevention and Development District of Baton Rouge.And Thursday, House Bill 1 will be considered on the House floor. The bill will determine LSU’s state appropriations, which are estimated to be about $40 million less than this year’s appropriation, according to the e-mail. 
—–Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]