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Penn State to vote on tuition freeze

State-owned schools raise rates 3 percent

While Pennsylvania’s two biggest state-related universities are poised to largely forego tuition increases for the upcoming year, state-owned universities are raising rates nearly 3 percent.

Penn State’s board of trustees are to vote today on school President Eric Barron’s recommendation to keep tuition the same for undergraduate in-state students. It would be the second time in four years that tuition has been frozen.

Penn State saw its state appropriation increase by $6.9 million — roughly 3 percent — under the state budget passed last month.

On Monday, the University of Pittsburgh froze undergraduate tuition rates for most in-state students. But because of increasing program demands and costs, engineering students at the Pittsburgh and Johnstown campuses, regardless of residency, will see a tuition increase.

Pitt-Johnstown’s in-state tuition and fees are $13,876 and room and board are $9,660, according to the College Boards college comparison website.

Penn State Altoona’s tuition and fees are $15,190 plus $11,280 for room and board.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale this week decried the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s 2.99 percent tuition hike for the 2018-19 school year.

“I am appalled that the state system once again raised tuition rates for Pennsylvania students to attend our 14 state-run universities,” he stated in a press release.

“Quality higher education must be affordable for the middle class,” DePasquale said. “Yet every time the state system raises tuition, it prices students out of being able to afford such an education right here in Pennsylvania.”

DePasquale found the tuition hike especially inappropriate given that the recently enacted state budget that provides the state system with $15 million in additional state funds for next school year, a 3.3 percent increase.

Kenn Marshall, state system media relations manager, said the tuition increase is $112 a semester or $224 for the year.

Typical in-state undergraduate base tuition for the 2017-18 academic year was $7,492, according to the system’s website.

“We are still the lowest cost four-year, higher education option in Pennsylvania. We are committed to providing high-quality, affordable education,” Marshall said. “The universities worked hard to keep it to a minimum. Even with the funding increase from the state, we were looking at a deficit of $50 million projected for the 2018-19 year.”

According to the College Boards’ website, Clarion’s tuition and fees are $10,890 with room and board at $11,058; Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s tuition and fees are $12,146 with room and board at $12,488; and Shippensburg’s tuition and fees are $12,086 with room and board at $12,010.

In a 2015 audit of the state system, DePasquale suggested several ways for officials to keep tuition costs down.

“My office will soon be reaching out to learn if the state system followed our recommendations,” his state­ment read. “I understand that the universities have many obligations vy­ing for their financial re­sources, but raising tuition should be a last resort.”

Savings in the system’s health care were “unprecedented,” Marshall said. And even with the tuition in­crease, universities are still going to have to cut $20 million from their budgets. That might mean not filling positions, postponing projects or delaying purchasing equipment and supplies, Marshall said.

Marshall said over the last four years, the system’s state funding increases add up to $55 million. But at the same time, its contributions to the state-controlled pension system for school employees have increased by $65 million.

“As helpful as the increases have been, they do not even cover the increased pension costs. And we have no control over those. What we do have control over is health care, utilities. And the universities realized $360 million eliminated from their budgets in those areas and will continue to make necessary cuts.”

Marshall did not have an answer for whether the state system implemented any of the auditor general’s 2015 recommendations.

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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