Students pay more tuition, University cuts near $2 million

University students are paying more in tuition and fees this semester, helping to dwindle the University's budget cut to the $1.9 million that appears in Chancellor Michael Martin's recently released $441 million operating budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The LSU Board of Supervisors will vote on the pending budget Friday.

"We did not come out unscathed, but we came out less scathed ... and probably survived the legislative session and a lot of other bumps and lumps along the way about as well as we could have expected," Martin said.

Full-time in-state undergraduates are paying an additional $295.30 in tuition and fees, while full-time out-of-state undergraduates are paying an extra $1,407.30. The supplemental tuition and fees are expected to plug $8 million into the operating budget, based on projected enrollment increases for this school year.

The LA GRAD Act 2.0, which was passed in the summer's legislative session, grants the University additional means of self-governance to increase tuition.

"We have to get to a world where it's not a question of being cut, it's a question of how much money we get," said Jack Hamilton, executive vice chancellor and provost.

While actual enrollment numbers will not be available until the 14th day of class, Kurt Keppler, vice chancellor for student life and enrollment, said though this fall's freshman class will probably be smaller than last fall's, the high number of students in the class of 2014 will allow for a slight increase in total enrollment this semester. He said he estimates enrollment to be around 29,000.

Martin and Hamilton said the University needs more liberty to increase tuition in order to bring in more money. When the University hikes tuition, Hamilton explained, it also must provide more financial aid to accommodate students, leading to a 30-percent decrease in the University's net revenue.

"The situation we're in right now is that people in the state come to LSU and get a Tier One education for the price that it should cost you to go to a Tier Four university or a Tier Three university, and that isn't sustainable over a long period of time," Hamilton said. "The price we charge for this university is below what a flagship institution in the state should be charging. That's a fact."

Two other parts comprise the budget aside from budget cuts and tuition and fees. The University accumulated "savings" by delaying hiring employees and postponing technology purchases. It's getting money from a "Flagship Fund" at the LSU System level.

The $1.9 million cut in this fiscal year's budget changes scholarships and operating budgets. The University cut School of Music scholarships, and the LSU Athletic Department will now fund Tiger Marching Band scholarships. The University also eliminated operating budget support for the trademark licensing program, Greek Life and Campus Mail.

Hamilton said he hopes music scholarships have not been cut "too far."

"It was not an easy decision to cut those scholarships, and we feel bad about it. It's not the only program on campus that's had problems," he said. "Last year, foreign languages were cut dramatically."

Martin called the new Greek fee a "fair payment for services rendered," while Hamilton explained that people who elect to participate in Greek Life should be willing to pay for it.

"We can cut academic programs, or we can start charging people fees for things that we do," Hamilton said, pointing to the alternative of cutting instructors or teaching assistants.

But Martin and Hamilton warned that the University is not in the clear.

"Recent history suggests that it's not out of the question that we would get a mid-year cut as has happened in the past," Martin said. "So one of the things we're doing, while celebrating the success we had, is preparing just in case we face a mid-year cut."

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