Board of Trustees approve Tuition Increase

By Fritz Klug
News Editor

Western Michigan University’s Board of Trustees approved a 5.7 percent tuition increase for the 2009-2010 academic year at its July 2 meeting. A full-time Michigan freshman or sophomore will pay $8,382 in tuition and fees, $454 more than last year.

“That’s about $2 a day,” WMU President John Dunn, Ph.D., said after the meeting. “None of us feel good raising tuition; we try to be as thoughtful as possible.”

Trustee Chair Kenneth Miller acknowledged that the meeting got off to a late start because the Board was in its closed session discussing the issue.

“The conversations are not quick and not enjoyable,” Miller said.

Student tuition makes up about two-thirds of the university’s revenue and the other third is provided by the State. Out of the $313 million generated for the 2008-09 budget, $193 million came from tuition dollars and $113 million from the State.

While Lansing will not finalize its budget until October, Dunn said that WMU is expected to receive $3.6 million less than last year, which is about $109 million. With the expenses of instruction and research continuing to rise every year, Dunn said that WMU is trying to cut costs around campus with $5 million in internal reductions.

“These reductions are surgical rather than across the board,” Dunn said. “We have not wavered on our commitment to quality.”

Some of the reductions include cutting energy consumption through lights and climate control in campus buildings. Other reductions are unclear at the moment.

Thursday morning’s tuition increase came as no surprise: in the past month, the University of Michigan announced it would raise undergraduate tuition by 5.6 percent for the 2009-10 academic year, bringing its cost to $11,659; Michigan State University announced a similar 5.2 percent increase for 2009-2010 and 4.9 percent for 2010-11.

Out of the 15 public state universities in Michigan, WMU ranks 11 in cost-of-attendance in 2008-09, according to a Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan study; out of the four universities that are classified as “research intensive” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, WMU has, by far, the lowest tuition– a fact Dunn and Miller continually reiterated.

So while technically WMU’s is the highest percentage increase, the actual dollar increase, $454, is lower than any other research intensive university in the state.

The question for Miller is now whether WMU will have to price its tuition accordingly to the other research-based Universities.

“We have a clear identity: ‘a research institution with a human face,’” College of Arts and Sciences dean Tom Kent said minutes before the increase was announced.

“Either we make program cuts or increase tuition,” Miller said.

Over the last decade the trend has been clear: increase tuition. The annual cost of attending WMU has increased from $3,944 in 1999-2000 to the current $8,382, or 112 percent.

Miller said the Board will be planning a full-day retreat in the fall to find a “greater vision” in how funds are received.

“Change must come in the way that the university supports itself,” Miller said, adding that WMU is now more of a publicly assisted than a publicly supported university.

“We will not let the State dictate our future,” Miller added.

Graduate student tuition was increased 5.5 percent, from $378.88 in Fall 2008 to $401.61 for Fall 2009. Tuition for Extended University Programs was raised as well from $297.46 to $318.28 per undergraduate credit hour and $420.50 to $449.94 per graduate credit.

“[The tuition increase] was reasonable within the circumstances,” Diane Anderson, Ph.D., vice president for Student Affairs said. “They [the Board] kept it as low as possible.”

Nate Knappen, president of the Western Student Association, who also spoke at the meeting, said the increase is “It is comparable to other public Michigan universities and is necessary to support the success of our students.”

Dunn said he hopes to maintain student work programs and scholarships to help students pay tuition.

“It’s a very different reality now,” Dunn said.

“Students must know they have a reliable and vital university,” Trustee Dennis Archer said before voting for the increase.

All of the trustees approved of the increase besides William Martin, who was not able to be reached at the time of publication.

Also on the agenda was the termination of a lease on a 55 acre property held by MSU since 1974 for entomological, or bug research. When WMU acquired the land in 1978, the lease carried over. The Board unanimously passed to terminate the lease and reimburse MSU $985,000 for the projected three-year move.

The only public addresses at the meeting came from Karl Schrock and Tom Kostrzewa who spoke on behalf of the Part-time Instructors Organization, which became a recognized union by the state of Michigan Monday after 86 percent of part-time instructors at WMU voted for it.

Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald.Western Michigan University Board of Trustees public session meeting that took place in Bernhard Center on Thursday, July 2 2009.

Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald. Attendees to the public session meeting with Western Michigan University Board of Trustees

Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald.Western Michigan University Board of Trustees public session meeting that took place in Bernhard Center on Thursday, July 2 2009.

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