Tuition increase likely next year

Hold on to your income-tax returns. You may just need them for next semester.

And although… Hold on to your income-tax returns. You may just need them for next semester.

And although nothing is definite, it is likely that Pitt students could again face a tuition increase.

While Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed budget increases state spending by 4.2 percent, funding for Pitt is slated to increase by only 1.5 percent.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg testified in Harrisburg, Pa., last week in front of the House Appropriations Committee about how the proposed budget would affect Pitt. Currently, Pitt relies on the state to fund approximately 11 percent of its budget. Tuition accounts for another 11 percent.

The proposed 1.5 percent increase in funding is equivalent to $2.4 million and would increase the amount of state funding for Pitt from $164.3 million to $166.7 million.

The fiscal year for both Pitt and the state of Pennsylvania begins July 1, which means that the Pennsylvania legislature has until June 30 to pass a budget. Pitt’s total operating budget for the fiscal year 2007-2008 was $1.64 billion.

“Right now there’s no budget, there’s no tuition increase,” Pitt spokesman John Fedele said. However, that does not mean that an increase in the cost of tuition is not possible.

“We’re nowhere near being able to say what the tuition increase will be,” Fedele said.

Fedele stressed the fiscal challenges of maintaining Pitt’s reputation as a leader in academics and research.

He also said that changing technology presents another reason for increasing costs.

“We need to stay current with technology in order to provide students with the best technology available,” he said.

Pitt’s tuition has increased steadily over the past several years.

Since the 2003-2004 school year, the cost of tuition for a full-time, in-state undergraduate student has increased by almost $3,500, according to the University’s Department of Institutional Research.

Last year, tuition increased by 5.9 percent for in-state students, in part to compensate for rising inflation.

The problem of dwindling state support is not new for Pitt.

Thirty years ago, the state funded 32 percent of the operating budget and in 1995 state funding still represented 19 percent of Pitt’s budget.

State Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill said the state budget “has implications across the board.” Frankel is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

“We’re not even keeping up with inflation,” he said.

According to Frankel, if funding for state-related universities had kept pace with inflation over the past several years, Pitt’s funding from the state would be about $30 million higher than what it currently is.

He called the lack of state funding for Pitt and the other state-related schools a process of “dis-investing.”

Part of the reason for the small increase in state funding is because of Rendell’s emphasis on funding for early childhood education, something that Frankel agrees with. But he also said that not providing adequate funding to Pitt and the other state-related universities “compounds problems.”

Frankel said cuts in federal funding and rising inflation have helped to contribute to the problems surrounding the proposed budget.

“We need to reassess what we’re doing to at least keep pace with inflation,” he said.