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UIS tuition likely to rise in 05-06
University to seek student input on tution
By Tom Cronin
Tuition rates at UIS are
expected to rise for the 2005-‘06 academic year, but the size of
the anticipated increase has not officially been determined.
University of Illinois officials
plan to make a presentation about the budget and potential
changes in tuition at tomorrow’s Board of Trustees meeting in
Urbana, but the board does not expect to take formal action on
any resolutions to increase tuition until the Jan. 20 meeting,
according to UIS Student Trustee Andrew Hollingsead.
Hollingsead said that he plans
to seek student input on the issue after Thanksgiving by sending
a survey to every student and hosting a discussion forum. After
examining the student input, Hollingsead and the Tuition
Executive Committee plan to communicate this input to the
administration, the Tuition Review Board and the Board of
Trustees.
“The University of Illinois
administration wants to try to get an idea of what everyone
seems to be comfortable with,” Hollingsead said.
Tuition at UIS is expected to
increase at a rate that would be “significantly lower” than the
rates at UIC and UIUC, Hollingsead said.
For “continuing” UIS
undergraduates who enrolled prior to this semester and are
taking 15 credit hours, tuition is tentatively expected to rise
by roughly $110 to $120 per semester, Hollingsead said.
Degree-seeking undergraduates who were new to UIS this fall, as
well as those will be new to the campus in fall 2005, will most
likely see an increase of roughly $285 per semester over the
current rate for new students, he said.
New undergraduates pay higher
tuition rates because the Guaranteed Tuition Plan requires the
university to offer these students the same rate for four years.
The plan went into effect this semester and was created in
compliance with the Illinois Truth in Tuition Act.
Although tuition figures for
fiscal year 2006 have not been finalized, the board approved a
resolution on Sept. 9 requesting an additional $87.8 million in
tuition and state funds for the university’s fiscal year 2006
operating budget, representing an increase of 7.61 percent.
Chester Gardner, U of I vice
president for academic affairs, said at the November 2003 Board
of Trustees meeting that the university becomes more dependent
on tuition when state support decreases. State appropriations to
the university have fallen by more than $351 million since
fiscal year 1990. Of this total, reductions since fiscal year
2002 account for more than $130 million.
Last December, University
Spokesman Tom Hardy said that U of I officials have had to raise
tuition to a level that is higher than what they would have
preferred, in order to make up for money lost through budget
cuts.
“There’s no question that this
university and other public universities in the state and the
country would really appreciate having a larger contribution
from the state, in terms of support for the state public
universities,” Hardy said. “They benefit from less pressure on
universities to turn to tuition to help pay the salaries of the
faculty in the academic programs.”
The U of I received $697 million
in state funding for fiscal year 2005, including $20.9 million
that went to UIS. The amount appropriated to the U of I, and
higher education as a whole, for this fiscal year did not change
from last year, but the university’s state allocations declined
for each of the three years prior to that.
UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen
said in August that he was optimistic that higher education
appropriations would remain steady over the next few years.
“I believe level funding turned
a corner for higher education in Illinois,” he said. “We’ve had
very severe cuts for three straight years, and I think the
legislature and the governor agree that higher ed will be level
funded.”
In an interview with Journal
staff members in September, U of I President James Stukel said
that he hopes the state will increase funding to higher
education in the near future. If the economy grows and if House
Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson
and House Minority Leader Tom Cross continue to support higher
education, then it is possible that funding could increase,
Stukel said.
In-state tuition for continuing
students and non-degree seeking students is $124.25 per credit
hour this year, amounting to $1,863 per semester for full-time
students taking 15 credit hours. For degree-seeking
undergraduates who were new to UIS this fall, in-state tuition
is $133.40 per credit hour, or $2,001 per semester for full-time
students.
This year’s tuition rates
represent an 8 percent increase over last year for continuing
students and a 16 percent increase for new students. The tuition
increases for fiscal years 2004 and 2003 were 5 percent and 10
percent, respectively.
Despite the unusually high
tuition increases in recent years, Hardy said that the “sticker
price” of a U of I education is still reasonable and competitive
– especially taking financial aid into account.
In November 2003, UIS Provost
Michael Cheney said, “I think what’s happening is students who
go to public institutions are now dealing with an issue that
students who attended private institutions have dealt with for a
number of years, which is how far into debt do you want to go
before you say, ‘I can’t go into more debt,’ as a way to use
loans?”
Police investigate reported aggravated battery
incident
By Tom Cronin
The UIS Police Department is
working to identify the perpetrator in a reported incident of
aggravated battery that occurred on Nov. 2 in Brookens Library.
In an e-mail sent to UIS
students and employees on Nov. 3, Chief of Police Don Mitchell
said that a white male in his early 20s approached a UIS student
who was conducting research on the third floor of the library
around 8:59 on the night of the incident.
According to the e-mail, the
perpetrator, who identified himself as “Kit,” had a short
conversation with the student and then walked away. A few
minutes later, the perpetrator reportedly returned and hit the
student in the head with a book. The student then grabbed the
perpetrator by his hair and began screaming, but the perpetrator
activated the fire alarm system, escaped the building and fled
the area, the e-mail said.
The victim reported that the
perpetrator was 5 feet 5 inches tall, was of medium build, and
had short dark hair and a scar on the right side of his
forehead, according to the e-mail.
Mitchell said that police are
pursuing several leads in the case. He declined to discuss
details of the investigation because it was still ongoing at the
time of the interview and when The Journal went to press.
Jane Treadwell, university
librarian and dean of Library Instructional Services, said in an
e-mail to The Journal that the library plans to take
steps that are within reach to reduce the likelihood of similar
incidents in the future. Since the incident, the library has
been sending two student workers to each stack floor before
closing the facility each night, she said.
Additionally, Mitchell has
suggested installing security cameras in “various locations” in
the library, and idea that Treadwell said she supports.
According to Mitchell, students
and employees should be concerned about their safety at all
times, even in the library and other on-campus facilities where
violent crimes do not occur frequently. He encouraged all
females on campus, both students and employees, to take the Rape
Aggression Defense courses offered by the department.
The need for greater awareness
about personal safety, however, does not mean that the
university should restrict access to the library or the rest of
the campus, Mitchell said.
“We should all be reminded that
this is a public institution,” he said. “In other words, the
public can come on this campus, and they have a right to use our
library.”
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