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News Release

Last modified: Friday, May 11, 2007

IU schedules tuition hearing for May 21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees will conduct a public hearing here on Monday, May 21, to hear student and public comment on proposed tuition and required fees to be set for all IU campuses for the next two academic years. The trustees also will receive a report on affordability initiatives for the Bloomington campus.

The hearing will get under way at 10:30 a.m. in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union building and be connected via videoconferencing to sites at IUPUI and all regional campuses so students and the public there may observe and participate as well.

IU officials will outline proposed tuition and fee rates for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years and describe how these additional revenues will be used to maintain and improve academic quality.

Also, Roger Thompson, vice provost for enrollment management, will outline new and expanded student aid programs that will help IU Bloomington students from low- and moderate-income families. This spring, IU announced five new scholarship programs that will invest $10 million a year in reducing the actual cost of attending IU Bloomington for eligible in-state students.

Following the hearing, trustees will convene at 1 p.m. in the same location to deliberate on the proposed tuition and fee rates and are expected to take action.

The IU administration is recommending a 5 percent increase in tuition and required fees in each of the next two years for in-state undergraduate students at all campuses. Additionally, undergraduate students in business, music, nursing and art and design programs may see new or increased program fees to defray the higher instructional costs inherent in those programs.

"Thanks to improved state funding authorized by the Indiana legislature, we were able to hold the increase for in-state undergraduates to 5 percent," said Judith G. Palmer, vice president and chief financial officer. "We are grateful that our Indiana lawmakers are providing us with the resources we need to keep IU's undergraduate programs affordable for in-state students."

Palmer said the increases will be applied to a variety of needs at each campus, including funds to retain outstanding faculty and researchers, inflationary increases in health care, utility and other costs, expansion of some student aid programs and efforts to increase the numbers of under-represented minority students.

Some campuses will also use the funding for operational costs tied to new facility construction, while IU Bloomington will undertake academic facility improvements that have long been postponed.

"We are facing a number of compensation and inflationary pressures that must be addressed within the next two years if we are to maintain the quality of our programs and make progress in our strategic priorities," Palmer said.

Most in-state undergraduate students at the Bloomington campus would see an increase of $376 for 2007-08, and would pay $7,837 for the academic year. Most full-time in-state students at IUPUI would see an increase of $326 and pay $6,850 for the year. A schedule of proposed percentage rate increases for each campus can be viewed at https://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/2987_h.pdf.

Under the proposed new rates, most non-resident undergraduates at IU's Bloomington campus would see a 9 percent increase in the 2007-08 academic year and an 11 percent increase in 2008-09. These students would pay $22,316 for the 2007-08 academic year.

Proposed increases for graduate and professional programs vary from campus to campus. At the IU School of Medicine, in-state tuition and required fees would rise by 7.8 percent in each of the next two years. At the IU School of Law in Bloomington, in-state students would see tuition and fees rise by 13.5 percent in 2007-08 and 11.6 percent the year after. A schedule of proposed percentage rate increases for each graduate program can be viewed at https://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/2987_h.pdf.

Undergraduate nursing students at IUPUI and Bloomington would see a new program fee to help pay for an expansion of both undergraduate and graduate programs at those campuses.

Next fall, full-time undergraduate nursing students would pay a program fee of $1,005. The fee would increase to $2,010 for the 2008-09 academic year.

Marion Broome, dean of the School of Nursing, said expansion of IU's nursing programs are needed to help Indiana deal with a looming critical shortage of registered nurses in the next decade. Currently, the two campuses graduate about 300 new R.N.'s each year, and that will be increased by 10 percent per year over the next four years.

Also, graduate programs will be expanded to enroll some 90 new master's degree students in the nursing education major over the next four years. The PhD program will be expanded as well. Both of these programs will contribute substantially toward reducing the faculty shortage in Indiana schools of nursing.

The new fee revenues will be used to hire at least 10 new faculty members as well as elevate salaries of existing faculty members to levels that are compatible with other universities and the health care industry.

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