Cal U, other PASSHE schools hike tuition 3.5 percent for 2017-18
The board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education has increased tuition by 3.5 percent for California and 13 other state-owned universities in reaction to the budget passed recently by the General Assembly.
That 2017-18 budget as allowed to become law without Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature includes approximately $453.1 million for the state system, up $8.9 million or 2 percent from the 2016-17 allocation of approximately $444.2 million.
For most full-time in-state residents, who make up about 90 percent of all PASSHE students, it’s a base hike of $127 per semester to $3,746, or a rate for the entire year of $7,492. Still, a PASSHE spokesman said, California and the 13 other state system universities will remain the lowest-cost option among all four-year colleges and universities in Pennsylvania.
“The universities, despite the enormous challenges they have faced over the last decade, and continue to face today, have done an extraordinary job of controlling their expenses in order to maintain the best quality and affordable higher education for our students,” board Chairwoman Cynthia D. Shapira said in a PASSHE press release. “We all are committed to ensuring this continues.”
PASSHE spokesman Kenn Marshall said the tuition increase will help offset about half of a projected $71.7 million budget deficit across the 14-university system. He said California and the other PASSHE schools still will be required to trim a combined nearly $37.8 million in expenditures to balance their individual budgets.
He said the universities already have reduced expenditures by a combined nearly $325 million over the last dozen years in order to balance their budgets and to help hold down student costs
Specific allocations for the 14 institutions were not announced Thursday. PASSHE officials saw the bright side of a total allocation far below what they requested from the state budget.
“For the third straight year, the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf have increased funding to the State System, demonstrating their commitment to our students and our universities,” Shapira said in a statement issued to the Herald-Standard prior to the two-day meeting of the Board of Governors. “We are extremely grateful for their continued support and remain committed to doing our part to ensure students have access to a high-quality, affordable education that prepares them for a lifetime of success right here in Pennsylvania.”
“It is gratifying to know that even in these enormously challenging times, both the governor and the General Assembly understand how important public higher education is to Pennsylvania’s future and Pennsylvania’s economy,” system Chancellor Frank T. Brogan said. “Our state system universities are a smart investment–one that will pay enormous dividends today, tomorrow and for years to come.”
Cal U spokeswoman Christine Kindl said her institution would refer comments on the budget as well as recommendations heard Wednesday from a consultant about the future of California University and 13 other state-owned universities.
“No university should be closed,” the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems said in its presentation to the PASSHE board Wednesday. “No university should be merged (and) no university should be separated from the system.”
The Boulder, Colorado-based consulting firm also said there was a need to shift the emphasis of the 14-university system from “an emphasis on institutions as employers first and providers of services to students and communities second” to “a dynamic system and constituent institutions that are focused on the needs of students and regions.”
And it said there was a need to end “a climate of distrust, non-transparency, confrontation and competition” at and between all 14 institutions.
NCHEMS describes itself as “a private nonprofit (501.c.3) organization whose mission is to improve strategic decision making in post-secondary education for states, systems, institutions, and work-force development organizations in the United States and abroad.”
In its report to PASSHE it urged the amending of state Act 188 of 1982 that established the state-owned university system to “replace the current Board of Governors with a Board of Regents made up of lay members” and clarify the distribution of authority from the PASSHE chancellor down to the councils of trustees at the 14 universities.
“We all have a stake in the future of the State System so we wanted everyone to receive the same information, at the same time, from NCHEMS,” Shapira said. “With these recommendations now in-hand, we will carefully review them before determining how the System evolves in the months and years ahead.”
The union representing 5,500 faculty and coaches at the universities will also go over the NCHEMS findings, including another that “there should be no attempt to undermine the collective bargaining process,” and said it is glad that NCHEMS did not suggest closing or merging any of the universities.
“We found (the NCHEMS) presentation to be a bit vague,” Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties President Dr. Kenneth M. Mash said. “We really need to study the details that will come out in the full report.”
PASSHE officials insisted that the recommendations came out of a “widely inclusive process that included more than 100 meetings held across the state” with hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni, business and community leaders and elected officials and the suggestions of more than 800 individuals across the state.
APSCUF said it is disappointed in the limited amount of faculty input in the study and the failure to consult faculty about the research design.
Marshall said the board will “take some time to consider which could/should go forward,” with a decision to “take place at a later date.”
Shapira said the Board of Governors will continue to engage with stakeholders, including students, faculty and staff, to take advantage of “the opportunity to do things even better as we move forward into the future.”
Mash said NCHEMS suggestions about changes in governance would take time. Meanwhile, he said all parties involved “need to row in the same direction for the students” including a tackling of “the fundamental question of how to fund public higher education” in the Keystone State.
“College is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and Pennsylvania must make a commitment to educate students from working-class families,” Mash said. “We think the real answer lies in the commonwealth providing tuition relief so that more students can afford to attend our universities and have a chance to pursue the American Dream.”