THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
The University of Virginia plans to increase its tuition ``surcharge'' on first-year in-state law students and to begin a similar fee system at the Darden business school this fall to make up for dwindling state support.
Last fall, incoming law students from Virginia paid $10,234 in annual tuition and fees - or $1,500 more than other in-state students. U.Va. officials say that differential for first-year students could rise to $3,000 this fall and $5,000 in 1997. The university's Board of Visitors will decide the exact amounts in April.
The law and business schools are exempted from the tuition caps in Gov. George F. Allen's proposed 1996-98 budget.
Officials of both schools, which are ranked among the nation's top 10 in their leagues, say the jump in tuition is needed to keep them competitive.
``The central theme here at the law school is that state support for the law school is 4.7 percent of our operating budget, and we are suffering a shortfall,'' said Robert E. Scott, the dean of the school. The law school, Scott said, relies almost entirely on alumni support to close the gap.
The surcharge was not placed on out-of-state law students, because their $18,638-a-year tuition was already seen as sufficiently high, Scott said.
U.Va.'s executive vice president, Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., said the surcharge system was adopted instead of a uniform tuition increase to avoid heaping cost increases on students already at the university. ``This is an attempt to keep faith with those who had already come here,'' he said.
The system, he said, will phase in higher tuition rates so that by the end of 1997, all in-state students will pay roughly the same. This fall, the tuition of the current first-year students will be increased to equal the amount paid by the new first-year students. So if this fall's surcharge for new students is $3,000, current first-year students will see a $1,500 increase in 1996-97.
At the Darden school, Mark Reisler, the associate dean of administration, said officials hope to tack on a $1,500 surcharge for first-year students in the fall. Students from Virginia now pay $9,972 each year, compared with $19,054 for out-of-staters.
``With diminishing state support, the justification for the gap has begun to erode,'' Reisler said. ``We need to continue generating additional operating support for our school to remain competitive.''
Sandridge said the additional tuition revenue at both schools would go primarily toward increasing financial aid, hiring new faculty in specialty areas and lifting teacher and administrator salaries.
For most law students, annual tuition rose 7.2 percent last year, from $8,150 to $8,734. For the first-year in-state students, the additional $1,500 pushed the increase to 25.6 percent.
Yet Scott, the law dean, said, ``Students are uniformly supportive of what we're doing.''
Christopher Gordon, a first-year law student from Blacksburg, said he didn't mind the surcharge.
``For in-state students, the quality of the education . . . far exceeds the amount we're paying,'' Gordon said. ``The detriment of paying a little extra is worth maintaining the school's quality. In the long term, it's a good policy even if in the short term we wonder why we're having to pay it now.''
Matthew W. Cooper, a third-year law student from Florence, Ala., who also serves as the nonvoting student member on U.Va.'s Board of Visitors, said he hasn't heard much criticism: ``Because no current students had (the) increase and incoming students do not have anything to compare it to, no one really cares.''
In last year's U.S. News and World Report, U.Va.'s law school was ranked seventh in the country - and was the top public school. But in terms of expenditures per student and faculty resources, the law school placed 21st.
Darden finished ninth among business schools in the same ranking.
Scott said the other law schools charge thousands of dollars more for a comparable education. He described the surcharges this way: ``It's like your brother-in-law telling you he'll sell you his Mercedes for 40 percent under cost, and then it's only 30 percent under cost. It's still a heck of a deal.'' by CNB