Board Set to Consider Lowest Tuition Increases in a Decade

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities officials said today that the legislative budget agreement will reduce the system’s appropriation increase for the coming year by about one percent. Now that the budget reductions are set, the Board of Trustees is expected to act Wednesday on proposed average tuition increases of two percent at the state colleges and three percent at the state universities next year.

“We are pleased that we will be able to hold tuition increases to the lowest in a decade,”? said James H. McCormick, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. “In addition, a bonding bill passed in April provides the system with the largest amount we ever received for much-needed repairs, renovation and construction.”?

The system’s budget increase over the 2008-2009 biennium now will be $143.9 million, a net reduction of about $7.9 million from the $151.8 million increase approved in last year’s session by the legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“We know that legislators and the governor had difficult decisions to make to balance the budget, and we recognize that they worked to protect the public’s investment in higher education,”? McCormick said. “Overall, it was a good session for higher education.”?

In addition, contracts for all of the system’s faculty and staff were approved by the legislature and signed by the governor during the session.

This article is based on a press release from the Office of the Chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.