Council reduces part of KSU tuition hike by 1 percent

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The Council for Postsecondary Education today reduced Kentucky State University's request for an increase in tuition from 8 percent to 7 for resident undergraduates.

All other graduate and undergraduate tuition will increase 8 percent, as the university proposed.
KSU Interim Provost James Chapman said the university is disappointed with the council's decision.

"Obviously we put forward what we thought was our best proposal, the council looked at certain factors and decided otherwise," Chapman said.

KSU President Mary Sias said the decision will cost the school more than $162,000 in additional revenue.

"KSU had done everything we could to get our rate down to what was affordable for our students," Sias said. "At this point we may have to cut additional positions."

Resident undergraduates will pay $372 more for the 2008-09 school year, bringing the total cost of tuition and fees to $2,846 per semester, $27 less per student than KSU proposed.

Tuition and fees for non-resident undergraduates will increase by $1,000 per semester, to $13,490.
Graduate students will also see an increase, from $5,400 to $5,850 per semester for residents and $12,600 to $13,680 for non-residents.

The tuition increases will earn the university an estimated $1,679,470 more in revenue for the 2008-09 school year, according to the CPE tuition proposal summary.

The CPE heard proposals from universities across the state last week, all seeking tuition increases. An economic downturn, along with a tight education budget, led to tuition hikes at all of Kentucky's major public institutions of higher learning.

Gov. Steve Beshear imposed a 3 percent budget reduction to secondary education and another 3 percent was cut in the General Assembly's budget, approved in April.

The council essentially agreed to the increases proposed at the state's two largest colleges, the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville. The universities at Morehead and Murray also received the increases they requested.

Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Northern Kentucky universities were also told to cut their increases.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System saw the biggest cut to its proposal with the CPE granting a 5.2 percent increase, down from the proposed 13 percent.

The ruling will not affect the university's goal of providing students with a quality education, Chapman said.

"It doesn't affect that we're going to do a good job in providing the students with what they need," Chapman said. "It's like business, you make do with what you've got."