The University of Massachusetts Administration and Finance Committee gave the green light yesterday for next year’s proposed student charges, including a 3.4 percent increase in mandatory fees and tuition, according to a press release.
The Administration and Finance Committee voted on the proposal yesterday and the full Board of Trustees will vote on the proposal on March 14.
During the 2006-07 academic year, the total cost, including room and board, for a resident of Massachusetts to attend UMass Amherst is $16,584, and $26,306 for non-residents. The proposed increase would bump those numbers up to about $17,399 for residents and $26,977 for non-residents.
Money generated by the increase will be used to help fund “utilities and energy, debt service and capital improvements, need-based financial aid, student-life programming, salaries and fringe benefits, and new faculty,” states the Student Charges report from yesterday’s meeting. Some of the revenue will also be used to provide further aid for students who qualify.
The press release also states that part of this fee hike is a result of the state’s funding cuts from earlier in the decade. UMass received funding increases from the state over the past three fiscal years, but “its current-year (Fiscal 2007) state appropriation of $443 million is still lower than the appropriation was in Fiscal Year 2000, when the University received $454 million.”
“Our state and our University both need to get their priorities straight,” said UMass Student Government Association President Elvis Mendez in a press release. “While Massachusetts now spends more on its prisons than on public higher education, our university administrators are busy giving themselves raises while they tell us that as students, we can handle hundreds of dollars in tuition and fee increases every year.”
The Student Charges Report states, however, that the University’s goal is to limit the increase in mandatory charges to no more than the state’s inflation. According to the press release, President Jack M. Wilson’s proposed student charges increase does not rise above the local inflation rate of 3.6 percent.
While the University’s proposed increase of 3.4 percent is not pleasing for members of the Student Government Association, other schools around the nation could be dealing with much higher charges increases. The University of California system could have a seven percent increase and at Arizona State University, the increase could be as high as 10.4 percent.
At yesterday’s meeting, it was also noted that UMass met 91 percent of financial need for students during the 2006-07 academic year. This rate is the highest for any of New England’s public university systems.
