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The SIU Board of Trustees will not discuss the 7.1 percent and 15.9 percent proposed tuition increases at its Thursday meeting in Edwardsville, delaying a possible vote until at least December.
"I hope to get this taken care of in December," said Chancellor Walter Wendler, "because it's not fair to incoming students as well as our current students to have to wait until February or March to know what their tuition will be."
Wendler brought proposed tuition increases of 7.1 percent for returning students and 15.9 percent for incoming freshmen to the September board meeting. Although Wendler said the numbers represented a starting point, the board has yet to see a revision or approve the figures.
Wendler said the University will bring tuition back to the table in December, though board Chairwoman Molly D'Esposito said she does not anticipate the board taking a vote until at least February.
"We usually don't do tuition until the beginning of the year ˜ maybe February or March," she said. "I would say March or even April ˜ more toward the spring, we would vote."
The SIU campuses were the first to release tuition figures this year, as schools scrambled to make four-year projections and propose increases for the first truth-in-tuition class. Starting next year, incoming freshmen will be given guaranteed tuition rates for four years of college.
The University of Illinois system released tuition figures Monday rivaling those of the SIU system, and Chester Gardner, vice president for Academic Affairs, said he expects the U of I Board of Trustees to approve the figures at its meeting Thursday.
"The impression that I have is that they will approve the numbers, but it could be that they would decide to delay a decision," Gardner said. "But we have made the recommendations; the item for setting tuition and fees for fiscal year 2005 is on the agenda, so the board could vote on them."
Administrators at the U of I are proposing an 8 percent tuition hike for all students within the U of I system, with an additional 7.4 percent tacked on to incoming freshmen, making their total increase 16 percent.
Robin Kaler, spokeswoman for the Urbana-Champaign campus, said tuition will rise to $6,014 per year for returning students and $6,460 for incoming freshmen. SIUC's tuition will soar to $4,545 and $4,924 for next year's returning and incoming students, respectively, for two semesters of 15 credit hours.
Kaler said that like all Illinois public universities, the U of I is assuming risk assigning a four-year guaranteed tuition rate.
"It's much more difficult to predict expenses four years from now, and we assume the risk is worth it to give students that stability for four years of education," she said.
"Obviously we have planners and staff in the office of planning and budgeting spending hours and hours making sure estimates are as accurate as possible. If we guess wrong, the other students ˜ those not guaranteed tuition ˜ will end up paying more as well as the next class under guaranteed tuition."
Wendler said administrators are still evaluating next year's tuition figures for SIUC, though he expects they will not change.
The SIU Board is also expected to approve the Office of Economic and Regional Development's move to the vice chancellor of Research and Graduate Dean's responsibility area.
The board is likely to authorize $550,000 for proposed renovations to the basement of Grinnell Hall and $300,000 to repaint the exterior of the Recreation Center.
D'Esposito also said she has received no word as to the reappointments of Gene Callahan and John Brewster, whose appointments expired nearly a year ago. Governor Rod Blagojevich has also not yet replaced Mark Repking, who resigned from the board in July for personal reasons.
