As universities across the nation face budget shortcuts, Georgia is trying to meet the demands of a $385 million budget cut from the state’s higher education budget.
Chancellor Erroll B. Davis, responsible for the 35 public colleges and universities in Georgia, says that in order to meet this budget cut, the colleges and universities would have to increase tuition by 77 percent. Chancellor Davis, along with other university presidents in the state of Georgia, is attempting to discuss specific budget cuts, rather than have the state House-Senate joint budget committee make budget cuts wherever they choose.
If this increase happens, students with locked-in tuition guarantees will lose that guarantee.
“So be it,” state Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) said. “If we have to break the promise of locking in tuition, we have to break the promise. It’s not something we wanted but I cannot emphasize enough that we do not have the money.”
The 77 percent raise would increase tuition to more than $10,000 a year for research schools, more than $6,700 for four-year colleges, and more than $4,000 for two-year colleges. The meeting with the House-Senate budget committee included Harp, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton), and Rep. Bob Lane (R-Statesboro). The specific sectors of the universities that would face budget cuts are still unknown. Both Rep. Scott and Rep. Lane implied that the budget cuts should come from compensation packages and 1 percent salary cuts.
The meeting concluded that no sector of the university system is saved from budget cuts. Big tuition cuts, salary cuts, and closing or consolidating schools are still options.
Harp stressed the importance of the university presidents and Davis deciding on where the budget cuts will happen.
“Please, we need definitive ideas, suggestions where to come up with that money by Friday. I hope you can do that. If you can’t, you put it on the folks of this committee to do it. And we do not know the best way.”
Georgia is not the only state suffering from budget costs. Flagship universities, the first established public research university in a state, are universities that have generally been cheaper than others. However, due to budget cuts in the past five years, flagship universities have had to increase tuition by 6.5 percent. This is true for the University of California school system, University of Florida, and the University of Wisconsin.
Any tuition increase would affect out-of-state students as well as those paying the lower in-state cost. Students from other states pay four times the in-state tuition rate in Georgia.
“At this point in time, I find it critical that higher education remain as accessible as possible, especially for students coming from low-income communities and communities of color. Georgia has done a lot of things right - like keeping tuition at public institutions low, continuing to provide the HOPE scholarship, and making our colleges and universities competitive.”
“For the sake of future and current students, we have to protect higher education,” said undergraduate Jesús Étienne Pülido.
Undergraduate journalisn major Jenn Twitchell agrees.
“Although raising tuition is beneficial for the schools, it severely impacts the students, like me, who are paying for college on their own, as well as the families who have more than two kids. The economy is already in a tough spot and raising tuition will make it that much harder for kids to go to their dream school or even get a college degree.”
Rep. Bill Hembree (R-Winston) said that increasing tuition prices is not possible without the university system first reducing spending.
“We all know there are inefficiencies, excessive costs,” Hembree said. “If we walk away from this session without having cut somewhere in this system … then we have failed. If you go back and raise tuition, I for one will not stand for it.”
“While I am here to agree there is room for improvement, I’m not able to say there are efficiencies that equal the total budgets of 23 of our 35 institutions,” Davis said.
At press time, the immediate budget cuts are still unknown. If this tuition increase is approved, it will take effect after July 1 of this year.
State tuition could rise by as much as 77%
Published: Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, March 17, 2010
 "Photo: David Kurniawan")
David Kurniawan
The fate of Georgia’s universities lies in the hands of the state legislature, which will decide over the next few weeks how to handle the state’s budget crisis. Tuition could go up by as much as 77%, which would bring Georgia State’s tuition to over $10,000 per year.
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