URBANA – The next tuition hike will be tied to inflation, but the University of Illinois is still not releasing a dollar figure.

UI spokesman Tom Hardy said tuition is likely to be voted on at the March 23 board of trustees meeting in Springfield, but the agenda item has not yet been composed.

In past years, tuition has been decided as late as June.

At Monday's meeting of the UI board's audit, budget, finance and facilities committee, Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr said the tuition rate would likely be flat except for an increment roughly equal to inflation.

Earlier that day, board Chairman Chris Kennedy told The News-Gazette that the trustees remain committed to holding tuition to the inflation level, while finding money to attract and retain top faculty.

Kennedy said "we'll try to remain flat in real dollars" after last year's 9.5 percent tuition increase, good for four years of school.

The Consumer Price Index rose by 1.6 percent over the last year, according to Department of Labor.

The Higher Education Price Index, an inflation index tracking the main cost drivers in higher education, has a preliminary rate of 2.3 percent, according to Commonfund, which gives fund management and investment advice to not-for-profit institutions.

The UI will use cost-cutting measures, many at the Urbana campus stemming from Stewarding Excellence reports, as well as an administrative restructuring, to free up scholarship money, Kennedy said.

Money saved in those measures will also be used to retain faculty, he said. But the trustees won't be making those decisions, he told an audience member at a speech; that will be left up to departments and colleges.

Knorr said the UI is challenged by a pullback in state financing; Gov. Pat Quinn recommended a flat budget for the UI in February.

Also, the state is now behind $437 million in money it has promised the university, Knorr said, as well as being $44 million behind in Monetary Assistance Program reimbursement.

The state's direct appropriation is below the 1999 figure in inflation-adjusted dollars, despite adding 10,000 students systemwide and the requisite buildings and other expenses since then, Knorr said.

In 1970, the state supported the UI to the tune of $12.80 for every dollar in tuition; today, that figure is 80 cents for every tuition dollar, he said.

President Michael Hogan said that meanwhile, union contracts, utilities and other costs have gone up, making it a struggle to find raises for faculty who haven't seen much for several years.

And the UI has picked up much of the state burden for needy students. Its supplemental grants moved up from $1 million to $45 million in the course of a decade, Knorr said.

One thing that won't be going up is the library/information technology fee at the Urbana campus.

After a student senate resolution vote, student body President David Olsen spoke up at the January trustee meeting about that fee going up by $6.

The student arguments swayed administrators and trustees, who will keep the fee at last year's rate.

Olsen said he was "thrilled" that student input had swayed the decision-makers, and praised fellow students who composed a lengthy report that opposed the increase.