SFA regents approve hefty tuition and fee increases for fall

NACOGDOCHES — Facing an open enrollment deadline later this month and a deficit budget for the last couple of years, the SFA board of regents met for a phone conference Monday afternoon to approve some pretty hefty tuition and fee increases for the fall.

For a student taking 12 hours, the combined designated tuition and fee increases would mean an additional $384 per student per semester.

If the university had 10,000 full-time students (SFA only had 9,142 in 2005), the increases would bring in an additional $3.84 million.

Designated tuition charges for SFA are currently $85 per semester credit hour.

Depending on the level of funding from the state, which should be decided by the end of the legislative session next month, that designated tuition rate will be somewhere between $93 and $97 per semester credit hour.

Citing a $1.4 million budget deficit, that will be carried over into the next budget year, Vice President of Finance and Administration Deborah Baisden informed regents that if SFA receives no additional funding from the state this session, the university will most likely need a $12-per-semester hour increase, "just to break even."

Newly approved fee increases are as follows:

* Library fee: From $4 to $12 per semester credit hour.

* Technology (formerly computer-use) fee: From $10 to $16 per semester credit hour.

* Student service fee: From $11 to $12 per semester credit hour.

* Publication fee: An increase from $1 to $6 per semester credit hour.

Regents unanimously approved the increases, which also included a 5-percent increase in room and board rates, and course-fee increases for about 26 classes, but some of the regents on the conference call expressed some concern.

Richard B. Boyer, regent from Dallas, said that on paper, the increases may seem like a few dollars here and a few dollars there, but those dollars add up.

"I would like to be able to look someone in the eye and say what they are going to get for that extra money," Boyer said. "Because it sounds like they are going to get the exact same thing they got last year."

Baisden responded saying that the increase in tuition was to help cover increases in faculty and staff salary increases, utilities, scholarships and entitlements.

"To keep things even, we have got to generate more money than we did last year," she said.

As for the fee increases, Baisden said, the university's analysis is that those increases are what is needed in order for those funds to pay for themselves.

In times past, she explained, none of the four fees would cover all the expenses for those services, and the money would have to eventually come from other sources.

The basic problem, according to administrators, is that there are a lot of unknowns with state funding, and for the past several years, state funding has not kept up with other expenses.

"Our appropriation is uncertain at this time," Baisden said. "Bills are working their way through the chambers, but there are a lot of unknowns, right now."

SFA administrators said they thought it was best to come up with a range of possible tuition increases (from $8 to $12 per semester credit hour), and then administration could adapt that range to whatever funding becomes available.

Baisden said there are actually two different tuition payments that make up the total tuition paid by students. One is the statutory tuition mandated by the state, which SFA has no control over. And the second is the designated tuition, which was capped by the state until lawmakers decided to deregulated it four years ago.

"In 2003, due to legislative funding cutbacks," Baisden said, "legislators deregulated the tuition and lifted that cap and allowed universities to generate funding through tuition."

SFA's current designated tuition of $85 per semester credit hour, places SFA in about the middle of other Texas universities, and Baisden said the $8 to $12 increase would probably not change that position.

Baisden also pointed out that with any increase in designated tuition, SFA is mandated to set 20-percent aside to be used for financial aid.

So it's increasing tuition, she said, but it also makes financial aid more available.

In other business, regents approved several course fee changes, with about 33 courses either increasing fees from between $1 and $149, and another 28 classes which reduced fees.

All of the above increases are for the fall semester and registration begins April 24.