While students are noticing increases in tuition, the increases really affecting students are University fees; a way to increase tuition without making Louisiana taxpayers pay.
According to a 2003 College Board Annual Survey of Colleges, tuition and fees all over the country are increasing at a steady rate.
State Rep. Carl Crane, R-East Baton Rouge, chairman of the House Education Committee, attributes the increase in tuition to inflation and the increasing cost of education.
“It’s just like the cost of milk,” Crane said. “Inflation is causing the cost of education to rise.”
For the 2003-04 academic year, the average tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities have increased by 14.1 percent nationally, according to the College Board survey.
Part of that increase is due to an 8.7 percent increase in inflated-adjusted dollars, according to the survey.
The national average is $4,694 for universities like LSU compared to the $3,845 LSU charges for tuition per year.
Unlike other colleges and universities, Louisiana’s legislature covers these tuition increases through the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students, Crane said.
TOPS was set up in 1998 to cover tuition and mandatory fees of all Louisiana universities and any subsequent increases approved by the legislature, said Travis Lavigne, chairman of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance Commission Committee.
The Technology Fee authorized by Act 1450 of the 1997 legislative session is not paid for by TOPS, neither is LSU’s Academic Excellence Fee, he said.
According to the LOSFA Web site, the total value for students of a TOPS Honors Award for attendance at LSU in Baton Rouge for four years, based on the tuition for the 2002-2003 academic year, would be $15,368.
However, students who receive this award rarely see the entire $400 stipend due to increases in fees such as the Academic Excellence Fee.
Robert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor for the Office of Budget and Planning, said the stipend is being absorbed by fees students owe anyway.
He said the University is doing students a favor by directing the LOSFA stipend to the University fee bill instead of having the student receive the full $400, and then having to write a check to pay for the remainder of their bill.
Tuition and fees have increased $212 from Fall 2002 to Fall 2003, Kuhn said.
Of that $212, $52 was a 3 percent increase in tuition, which was approved by the legislature two years ago and has generated more than $3 million for the University operating budget, he said.
The University’s operating budget is $330 million, so the actual $2.5 million the University received from this increase was very small in comparison to the total operating budget, Kuhn said.
There also was a $10 increase approved by students for Union renovations and a $120 increase in the Academic Excellence fee, which has generated $6.7 million, he said.
Of that $6.7 million, $1 million goes to students eligible for the Pell Grant whose Academic Excellence fee is waived, Kuhn said.
The rest of this money was allocated to a 3 percent teacher pay raise, a $500,000 increase for graduate assistantship stipends, and $2 million to hire new faculty in connection with the University’s Flagship Agenda, he said.
Hiring new faculty includes the recent hype about instructor cut backs and hiring more tenure-track faculty – assistant, associate and full professors, Kuhn said.
Another part of the increase is a $30 Utility surcharge that is placed in a restricted bank account only used for instances in which the utility bill exceeds the budget for utilities, he said.
In light of these fee increases, keeping up with the national tuition average may come into play, but Kuhn does not think so.
“The University is not trying to keep up with the national average,” he said. “We’re trying to provide quality education for our students.”
LSU is right about average in tuition cost, but is last in the amount the state appropriates for higher education, Kuhn said.
The University is keeping up with the average faculty salary, but not the average cost of tuition, he said.
The TOPS program already costs the Louisiana state legislature $104 million with 40,000 students on TOPS, LOSFA’s Lavigne said.
Any more increases in tuition covered by TOPS would be costing Louisiana taxpayers that much more, he said.
For example, the increase in the Academic Excellence Fee generated $6.7 million Louisiana taxpayers do not have to pay.
Despite its criticism, Crane said he thinks the University made a good case to raise the Academic Excellence Fee and thinks the University needs the extra money to keep up with the inflated cost of education.
He said the legislature refrains from micromanaging LSU’s budget, but only specified that the money generated by the Academic Excellence Fee does not go to paying the salaries of administrators.