Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302140129
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHILIP WALZER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
UVA TUITION TO RISE AT LEAST 10 PERCENT INCREASE IS 4TH IN AS MANY YEARS
The University of Virginia, keeping up the galloping pace of tuition increases, has announced another round of double-digit boosts for next year.UVa students will face an increase in tuition and fees of 10 percent to 14 percent, officials told the school's Board of Visitors last week. This will mark the fourth straight year that in-state students face increases of at least 10 percent.
UVa and other state schools will set exact rates in April or May. But the announcement offers the first glimpse of the tuition outlook across Virginia. And it provides further confirmation that the financial burden of a college education is shifting dramatically from the state to the students.
Last year, tuition statewide rose 15 percent, catapulting Virginia to the fifth-most expensive state for doctoral-granting colleges. State officials say there should be some letup next year but not much.
"I'd be surprised if they were at the same level as last year," Dan Hix, finance coordinator for the State Council of Higher Education, said of the increases. "But I would say the overall average statewide would be 9, 10, 11 percent."
Aside from the Virginia Military Institute, which has the highest charges for in-state students, the College of William and Mary and UVa are the most expensive state-supported schools in Virginia. At William and Mary, tuition and fees are $4,047 this year for in-state undergraduates and $11,427 for out-of-state students. At UVa, they are $3,900 and $10,800, respectively.
Even if UVa sticks to the minimum increase predicted, it will have raised tuition and fees a total of 58 percent since 1989.
Among students in Charlottesville, there is a mixture of bitterness and grudging acceptance.
Scott Ballenger, the student member of UVa's Board of Visitors, said the increase was needed to provide a $2.5 million boost in financial aid.
But sophomore James Rogers said financial aid is "not necessarily every other student's responsibility. Since this is a state-run school and the purpose is to educate students of this state, it's the state government's responsibility to meet those needs."
College officials, stung by state budget cuts of more than 20 percent in the past few years, say they have little choice.
"There are some things you could do without" if you kept fee increases small, "but you'd be standing still," said UVa's budget director, Colette Capone.
She said the money would help replenish the library, which has been hit particularly hard by the cuts, and finance long-awaited raises for professors.
In a presentation to the board, Capone offered a series of statistical snapshots highlighting the school's increasing reliance on tuition and decreasing ability to offer sufficient financial aid:
Tuition paid for 25.7 percent of the total cost of a student's education in 1977. This year, it will cover 55.3 percent.
In 1989, UVa was able to fill 90 percent of a student's financial need. Next year, she predicted, it will be able to fill 83 percent.
"You don't know who you're turning off by the sticker price," Capone said. "Somebody could look at a catalog and see it costs $12,000 to go to UVa, and they'll say, `Heck, I don't want to go there.' "
At William and Mary on Friday, the board heard similar statistics about the plight of students who want a higher education. But Sam Jones, associate provost for planning and budget, refused to predict tuition increases.
He said they would depend on the size of faculty raises being negotiated in the General Assembly. The college will have to subsidize about 50 percent of those raises.
Landmark News Service correspondent Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.