DUSTIN GAWRYLOW: OUTRAGEOUS TUITION INCREASE PROPOSED AT NDSU
Today, Dean Bresciani, president of North Dakota State University, announced that he would be asking the Board of Higher Education for an 8.8% tuition increase.
This despite the fact that University System Chancellor Bill Goetz just last week said that he would recommend that tuition at the state's four year colleges be limited to 2.5%. So, once again, the University System has lost control over what is going on at their campuses.
Since 2003, the North Dakota Legislature has increased NDSU's General Fund budget by 76%. This figure excludes dollars explicitly earmarked as "one-time spending".
|
NDSU General Fund Budget |
||
|
On-Going |
One-time |
|
|
2003-05 |
$69,314,490 |
- |
|
2005-07 |
$77,496,876 |
- |
|
2007-09 |
$69,920,723 |
$28,382,068 |
|
2009-11 |
$110,059,847 |
$18,355,817 |
|
2011-13 |
$121,939,625 |
- |
|
Increase |
76% |
|
No matter how much state funding increases it is never enough. Since 2003, tuition at NDSU has also gone up 36%.
During the past two legislative sessions, the North Dakota Taxpayers Association has gone on the record supporting bills to return final control of tuition levels to the legislature as well as ensure that the massive increases of state tax dollars be matched with real savings to the students themselves. In both 2009 and 2011, the legislature defeated bills that would return final say on tuition increases to the legislature.
We have even testified in favor of Democratic bills to freeze tuition on the basis that such freezes should be very easy in an era of 10-20% budget increases.
The only funding crisis at NDSU is a crisis of priorities. The mission of the universities should be to find ways to live within the 10-20% budget increases they have been getting from the legislature. The continued effort to build little empires on college campuses on the backs of both students and taxpayers should have been examined more fully this legislative session.
The failure of the legislature is not on the money side. Legislators have more than adequately funded higher education.
The failure of the legislature is in allowing business as usual within the University System. Now the students could be on the hook for more massive tuition increases despite the fact that plenty of taxpayer dollars have already been spent.
DakotaBeacon