UCA trustees OK tuition increase
Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/224561/
CONWAY — Undergraduate students at the University of Central Arkansas will pay 5. 6 percent more for tuition next year, the university’s board of trustees decided Friday.
Tuition will increase from $ 161 per credit hour to $ 170 for undergraduates. Graduate tuition will increase from $ 201 to $ 210 per credit hour, an increase of 4. 5 percent.
The increase is similar to those being made at most other public universities and reflects growing fuel and salary costs, as well as an anticipated reduction in state aid as the economy slows.
“I don’t know if its a good thing, but it’s a necessary thing,” Chairman Randy Sims said before the board unanimously adopted the increase.
UCA is the state’s secondlargest public university, with a fall semester enrollment of 12, 600.
An undergraduate taking 15 hours will pay $ 6, 505 in annual tuition and fees beginning in the fall. For comparison, an undergraduate with the same course load at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the state’s largest university, will pay $ 6, 399 a year. That’s up 5 percent from the current academic year.
Tuition and fees also will increase at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. That university’s board recently approved a 5. 6 percent increase in undergraduate tuition, from $ 154 to $ 164 per credit hour.
Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia’s tuition will increase 6. 67 percent, from $ 150 per credit hour to $ 160 per credit hour.
UCA also is increasing athletic fees by a dollar to $ 13 per credit hour.
In other action, the UCA trustees adopted the university’s $ 150 million operating budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. It increases spending 1. 49 percent from the 2007-08 budget of $ 148 million.
Salary spending will decrease by about $ 275, 000 because empty positions will be eliminated. A 2 percent faculty and staff wage increase is planned, but only if income from the state increases, President Lu Hardin told the board.
Hardin had to cut the budget by $ 4. 5 million after Gov. Mike Beebe asked state agencies to reduce spending as the economy slows.
Hardin also said he tried to keep the tuition increase low.
“While it is higher than I would like, I’m very pleased that it’s not 9 [percent ] or 10 percent,” he told the board.
Sophomore Ryan Barnes said his parents, who pay his tuition, probably will not be pleased with the increase. They’ll pay it, however, because Barnes has seen the university’s reputation and quality increase since he enrolled.
It’s also still a good deal, the biology major said.
“A college education is priceless,” he said, “at least for me.”