Last week the University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted to increase tuition by six percent. For the 2007-2008 academic year, in-state students will now pay $169.60 per credit hour.
In the interest of accountability and transparency, I feel it is my responsibility as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's student regent to inform students why I voted "yes" for the latest tuition hike.
The industry of higher education as a whole has been subject to incredible cost inflation over the past two decades. Driven by competition for talented faculty, the brightest students and precious research grants, universities across the country are being forced to come up with more funding to remain competitive. Unfortunately, unl is no exception to the trend.
Faculty and staff salaries comprise the overwhelming majority of NU's budget. This year collective bargaining agreements at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska-Kearney campuses mandated faculty salary increases of 4.3 and 4.4 percent respectively. In fairness, this increase was extended to faculties of unl and the Medical Center, as well.
Despite this, faculty at all four campuses remain woefully underpaid compared to their peers at other institutions. We have already seen a number of our top professors depart for more lucrative jobs at other schools.
Faced with such a budgetary burden, nu has only two options for off-setting costs: an increase in funding from the state Legislature or raising tuition. In January, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman recommended only a 1.1 percent increase in state funding to the university.
Had this recommendation carried, unl students would be facing tuition increases in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent.
I found a tuition increase of that nature completely unacceptable, and many others did, too.
Luckily, members of the Legislature were wise enough to up the recommendation to a 4 percent increase in state funding, but that still left nu with a deficit of some $9 million.
Worse yet, the governor has the ability to line-item veto parts of the state budget and in May it appeared that he might target nu.
At that point, the four student regents, myself included, met with Heineman and consented that if he did not veto the state appropriation, we would support a tuition increase to cover the $9 million deficit. Heineman followed through, nu escaped his vetoes unscathed, and last week all four student regents honored our commitment by voting to increase tuition by 6 percent.
That said, consistent tuition increases of nearly double the rate of inflation are wholly unsustainable and out of line with the university's mission to the State of Nebraska.
Our number one priority must be to keep higher education accessible and affordable for Nebraska students. To do so requires our state policymakers to re-examine what value they place on public higher education in Nebraska. If they do not, the alternative looks grim. Student debt already averages nearly $17,000 per unl student, the mere thought of which deters countless high school graduates from college.
For now, unl students should know that your college degree will earn you more than $1 million more than your high school diploma would have over the course of your lifetime. Tuition increase aside, an education at nu remains one of the best investments you can make.
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