Tuition at Metropolitan State College of Denver will increase by 22.6 percent this fall.
The Board of Trustees for Metro voted unanimously this morning to approve the increase.
The university had been contemplating a 21 percent increase, but when the state declined to fund building maintenance on the Auraria Campus, the three schools that operate there — Metro, the University of Colorado Denver and Community College of Denver — decided to pitch in to fund the most necessary facility repairs themselves.
Metro’s contribution to that fund will be $900,000, which required the additional 1.6 percent increase.
Metro is facing a $7.1 million cut in state funding this year, on top of previous cuts in the last few years.
Since 2008, Metro’s funds from the state have dropped to about $36 million from about $49 million. In the same time, enrollment has increased by about 14 percent.
Currently Metro receives about $2,100 per student in state funding. According to Jordan, that’s the second lowest per-pupil funding among the country’s 137 institutions with more than 15,000 students.
“I laid out the analysis for the board. Basically we would need an increase of $2,500 just to get us to the top of the bottom quartile,” said Metro President Steve Jordan. “When you’re funded as low as we are, we had no other choice.”
The school will cut 30 administrative positions this year, but fears further cuts next year will mean considering cutting degree programs as well.
“While state revenue projections are growing, the state still likely won’t have revenues to fund everything, so there’s a significant likelihood of further cuts,” Jordan said. “That’s what we worry about.”
If projections don’t change, next year the school will ask for a 13 percent tuition increase.
