Trying to avoid a budget shortfall this year and another nasty political fight next year, University of Colorado regents on Thursday approved a gimmick of sorts that effectively lowers tuition rates for some students this fall.
Even so, Gov. Bill Owens balked at the plan and threatened to “address CU’s tuition rates in next year’s budget” – which is to say, punitively.
It was a bitter end to CU president Betsy Hoffman’s tenure, which has been marred by tensions with the governor for much of the past 18 months. Thursday was her last official day in office. To the last, she seemed in synch with the regents, but not Owens.
If CU officials wanted the simplest way to help middle-income families, they could have applied an across-the-board cut in their original 28 percent tuition hike for in-state students. Instead, to keep many of its students from paying the full increase, regents agreed to provide financial aid to Arts and Sciences students so their out-of-pocket increase will be equivalent to a 15 percent hike for freshman and sophomores and 20 percent for upper-class students. Other students will pay the 28 percent increase.
The savings for A&S students certainly will help their families cover tuition this year. But next year, any new increase will be added onto the 28 percent base.
With Hank Brown coming on board as CU president Aug. 1, next year’s negotiations between the state and CU will surely go more smoothly, and a good thing – students shouldn’t have to wait until July to know how much they’ll be paying in the fall.
Hoffman admits this year’s dispute could come back to haunt CU, but she and the regents agree that CU can’t operate effectively without increasing tuition revenues.
Owens won’t be taken by surprise in 2006 as he was this year, and he will have the power to veto CU budget requests.
This year’s increase will ease the way for Brown, and because of Hoffman’s lame-duck decision, his revenue base should not require such an onerous increase. This year’s increase will be a hard pill to swallow for some Colorado families, but overall the average cost of attendance at CU is going up only 9 percent, when room, board and fees are figured in. That’s not totally happy news, but it’s not 28 percent.
If Referendum C passes in November and the state is allowed to keep more of the revenue it now collects, then more money should be available to colleges and universities. We think that should put an end to double-digit tuition hikes.
No one wants to see such figures, or a repeat of this argument, anytime soon.
