UI trustees to consider 6.9 percent tuition hike
CHICAGO - Incoming Urbana students are likely to see a 6.9 percent tuition rate increase at the University of Illinois, a rate that would hold steady for them for four years.
For general undergraduates at Urbana, tuition would go from $5,193 to $5,552, an increase of $359 per semester. Engineering tuition would increase from $7,557 to $7,964 a semester.
The rates are on the agenda for the Board of Trustees' meeting at 8 a.m. Wednesday at the UI-Springfield.
State law requires tuition to stay the same for a class of incoming students for four years.
"The guaranteed tuition program provides predictability, and this recommendation amounts to a one-time change for the incoming freshmen class rate of 6.9 percent, or the equivalent of an annual increase of approximately 2.7 percent," according to a trustees agenda item.
Last week, trustees and administrators suggested the next tuition hike will be tied to inflation, but did not release an exact figure.
At last week's audit, budget, finance and facilities committee meeting, Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr said the tuition rate would likely be flatexcept for an increment roughly equal to inflation.
The same day, board Chairman Chris Kennedy also said the trustees remain committed to holding tuition to the inflation level, saying, "we'll try to remain flat in real dollars."
Last year's Urbana rate saw a 9.5 percent tuition increase.
The Consumer Price Index rose by 2.1 percent over the last year, according to the U.S. 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 state is behind about $400 million in money it has promised the university.
UI President Michael Hogan said last week that while the UI tries to hold its own price tag steady, such costs as union contracts, utilities and supplies have risen, sometimes at more than the Consumer Price Index.
So in two years, tuition has went up by 16.4%. This is outrageous. Are they trying to make the U of I a rich kids school? They should be cutting administration and bureaucracy, building unnecessary buildings and red tape. They do not car if students are $50,000 in debt when they graduate. They can't even guarantee them a job when they graduate. Enough is enough. I propose an insurance program that would pay 1/4 of a student loan for each year that a graduate can't find a job in their field. This can be funded by taxes on corporations that move jobs out of the country.
This is the U of I for ya, they just raised and now they want to again. Maybe they should start raising the tax for out of state and foreign students, I know this would make me happy Im so tired of knowing that these kids are getting a huge break. I feel that that foreign students basically get a free ride if not do get a free ride and that our students here in Illinois want to go to a school like the U of I but cant because of money. Hopefully the U of I will open its eyes someday.
This is what I'm seeing, as an alumnus of UIUC:
- Students are going to pay a substantial increase in tuition to have 30-50% of their classes taught by GAs or in a large classroom with a hundred other students.
- We're still going to pay our football and men's basketball coaches over a million dollars.
- We're still going to pay tenured fat cats 100-700k or more to shuffle "ideas." Some of them, to be blunt, don't earn their pay. We all know it, but nothing ever gets done.
- Instead of fixing what we have, we keep building, like that stupid bell tower and the alumni center.
- Students are always going to get milked for everything they have; tuition rates, fees (that you can secretively "opt out" of, but only if you know where to go, and what date to do it on), parking, outrageous loans for low-return liberal arts degrees, and even the grocery stores close to campus are more expensive than the ones farther away.
- Although the economy is down, tuition rates are being hiked.
- College should not be thought of as "big business." That's insulting to the very nature of education.
I understand that people need to be paid, but this university is overloaded, overinflated, overpriced, and overweight. The quality of education is plummeting, so is the quality of many classrooms and buildings. I was told by a distinguished faculty member: "Don't come back here for your PhD; we just had our budget slashed, and students are going nowhere." Looks like I'll be going to Wisconsin or Ohio State or somewhere else once I finish my master's out here in West Virginia. I never thought I would say that. It makes me sad, to be frank, because in spite of my vitriol and anger, I do love my Fightin' Illini.
U of I has no credibility as an educational instrument and so the last recourse is to price out everyone but those elite that dare spend their money while believing they are now amongst the ivy league rank and file. Prestige is the store front of this wannabes and has beens wear house of warehouses.
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