NMU tuition up 5.5 percent

MARQUETTE - Northern Michigan University students will be paying a little more for school this fall. The university's board of trustees approved a 5.5 percent increase in tuition and fees at its meeting Friday morning.

The new rate of $7,078 per year for in-state undergraduate students was chosen by trustees from among four options with varying tuition increases.

For an in-state undergraduate student, the increase translates to $370 more for the school year. For out-of-state undergraduates, the increase is $586 for the year. Graduate students from Michigan will pay $302 more per year, while out-of-state graduate students will pay $430 more per year.

Trustees discussed four options, trying to balance the university's need to fund its long-term goals and the need to keep tuition at a competitive rate to attract students.

President Les Wong said he felt the board members thoroughly discussed the four tuition models and struck a good balance.

"I was pleased with the quality of conversation we had. Our board clearly has the students and families on their minds, and they also had the health of our institution in mind," he said. "We are very sensitive to the economic conditions of our students and their families."

Board members discussed tuition increases that already have been set at other Michigan schools, which ranged from a 3.7 percent increase at Saginaw Valley State University to an 8.2 percent increase at Michigan Tech University. In addition, on the same day NMU raised its tuition, Grand Valley State University approved a tuition increase of about 13 percent.

The 5.5 percent increase at Northern is the second-lowest among the schools that already have set tuition for the fall.

All of the proposed options were increases to tuition and fees, something Vice President for Finance and Administration Gavin Leach said was necessary because of historically low aid from the state, as well as inflationary and higher utility costs.

The state Legislature has passed a 1 percent increase in funding to Northern, but Leach presented numbers showing state aid has not kept pace with increasing enrollment. He said over 10 years, funding per student has declined by more than 20 percent.

"That does create more pressure on tuition and fees, and that is happening throughout the state," he said.

In choosing the rate, the board cut back on increases to the university's master plan budget, called the "Roadmap to 2015."

This caused one trustee, Sam Benedict, to oppose the board's motion to approve the 5.5. percent. He explained his vote afterward, saying he agreed with the lower amount of the increase, but had hoped to see the university find a way to fully fund the roadmap initiatives, and cut in other areas instead.

Board members discussed the options for funding before making their decision.

Trustee Brian Cloyd said the issue boiled down to making a short-term or long-term decision.

"We look at how can we distinguish ourselves from other institutions... the roadmap is the answer to that," he said.

Trustee Gil Ziegler said higher increases would only serve to discourage students from enrolling given the current state of the economy.

"I believe in the roadmap too, but the roadmap is no good without any cars on it," Ziegler said. "It's not pretty out there ... If you don't have students here, it doesn't make any difference."

Leach said each option included cutting operational costs. The model chosen includes $1.8 million in reductions and re-allocations, from areas Leach said had been previously identified either as possible areas of savings or that had come in under projected costs. They include insurance and legal costs, pension and health care costs, and savings in the laptop computer and other technology programs, Leach said.

Another piece of the university finance puzzle is higher utility costs, he said. They are projected to increase by $1 million over the year, according to figures Leach presented to the board.

"The cost is one that's hard to control because it's based on the market, even though we've been doing everything we can to save money," Leach said. Trustees asked about the status of a planned new cogenerational power plant for the university, which is expected to save about $1 million per year in utility costs, negating the energy price increases. Leach said the new plant would not be operational for at least two years.

The tuition increase provides a total university budget increase of about $3.37 million for the year. $1.88 million of that will go toward the operations budget, including utilities. The roadmap initiatives now will get $870,000 for the year, and the remaining $617,000 is reserved for an increase in financial aid programs to assist students with the tuition increase, according to Leach's presentation.