Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed budget is counting on costly changes to the way tuition is charged.
The governor’s proposed budget is one of two propositions for changing the full-time cap on per-credit-hour tuition next year.
Currently, students taking 12 or more hours pay the same rate for tuition as their course load increases. Jindal’s proposal would increase that 12-hour cap to 15 hours.
Under the governor’s proposal, University undergraduates would pay $189 more per credit hour for each credit hour taken between 12 and 15 hours. Most classes constitute three hours, so this would equate to a $567 increase in students’ tuition for a 15-hour course load.
According to Office of Budget and Planning statistics, the number of students that enrolled in 15 hours was double the amount enrolled in 12 hours last semester.
Jindal’s proposal would similarly move the full-time cap for graduate students from 9 to 12 hours.
Jindal’s proposal will be filed as legislation “in the next week or so,” said Michael DiResto, director of communication and strategic initiatives for the Governor’s Division of Administration, in an e-mail.
There is no indication changing the cap on tuition would have any effects on other items that require full-time tuition such as University scholarships or football tickets.
The proposal would raise $20.4 million in additional revenue for the University, DiResto said.
Other increases to student costs proposed by Jindal include reindexing or de facto increase, in the operational fee assessed by the University.
These proposed increases come on top of an already legislatively approved tuition increase of 10 percent for in-state students and 15 percent for out-of-state students.
Aside from the operational fee reindexing, each of Jindal’s proposals will be covered by TOPS.
“A change in the tuition cap will discourage excessive class dropping — that sees many students currently sign up for 17 or 18 hours and drop down to 12 hours midway through the semester,” said the Division of Administration’s presentation to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget. “This means that schools are paying for professors and classroom space that are not used.”
Jindal’s proposal is not the only one that would change the tuition cap.
House Bill 25 by Rep. Jerome Richard, I-Thibodaux, would remove the cap for full-time tuition entirely.
This would see tuition prorated through 18 hours, so students taking 18 hours pay 50 percent more than students taking the minimum of 12.
This is the second year Richard has authored such legislation at the request of Nicholls State University, located in his district. Last year his bill “never saw the light of day,” according to Richard.
Richard, a University alumnus, said he prefers this method for increasing colleges’ revenues rather than increases allowed by the LA GRAD Act.
“I just happen to believe this is a fair way to raise tuition,” Richard said. “If you take 15 hours, that is what you pay for instead of letting colleges raise tuition carte blanche.”
 
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Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]