Pa. college students gird for higher tuition

Night after night, when Temple University junior Laura Speers serves customers at Fare Restaurant in Fairmount, she carries more than plates and trays.

She carries nagging worries about how she'll pay for college in the face of ever-rising tuition.

She forgoes the university dining plan, making her own meals to save money, and continually searches for grants and aid. At Fare, she works every hour she's offered.

Now tuition is going up again at Temple and other state and state-related colleges, largely because of cuts to higher education imposed in the state budget signed by Gov. Corbett.

"I like being at Temple," said Speers, 20, of Saugerties, N.Y., but at one point, "I was thinking I might have to transfer."

Temple announced it would raise tuition 9.9 percent for in-state students and 5.4 percent for out-of-state students like Speers. At Pennsylvania State University, officials plan a yet-to-be-determined increase. The University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University have not announced hikes.

Tuition will go up 7.5 percent in the fall at the 14 state-owned colleges, which include West Chester University.

For the people who run Pennsylvania colleges, it was a week of good news and bad news.

The good news? The state budget was for once signed on time, so colleges have solid figures on funding at the start of the fiscal year.

The bad news? The figures are terrible.

The four state-related universities - Temple, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Lincoln - suffered 19 percent reductions in support, and the 14 state schools were cut 18 percent.

Both numbers are better than the 50 percent reduction that Corbett proposed to help close a $4 billion deficit. Yet both are historic reductions that have left students, parents, and administrators reeling.

"Cutting something as essential as education shows a fundamentally distorted priority list," said Temple senior Beth Cozzolino, 20, of Audubon, Montgomery County, who helped lead marches and lobby legislators to restore funding this school year. "It's still going to hurt a lot of people."

She pays for college through loans, work study, grants, and savings - the last supplemented by parents who have been putting money aside for nearly 20 years.

Cozzolino's father, Tom, said helping his four children pay for college meant skipping big vacations and new cars.

"We are 'well-off,' and we're still being really careful," he said. "I can't imagine families who are struggling, how they do it for their kids, given these cuts. There are a lot of students out there who frankly won't be able to attend college, not because they're not good students, but simply because they don't have the money."

As for the latest tuition increase at Temple, "we'll swallow hard and pay," he said.

Penn State will lose $68 million, returning funding to a level last seen in 1995, when the school had 19,000 fewer students. The board of trustees plans to approve a tuition increase July 15.

"As we've promised, we intend to implement only modest tuition increases," spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. "We are seeking efficiencies wherever we can without harming the quality of a Penn State education."

Even with a final state budget, total clarity remains elusive, as schools review their contingency plans for savings and reductions.

"We're still missing some pieces that would determine, 'This is what we're going to have for the budget,' " West Chester University spokeswoman Pam Sheridan said.

For instance, it's unclear how the 7.5 percent tuition hike might affect enrollment if some students turn to other schools or are priced out of college.

The tuition increase - $436 a year, coupled with a $116 annual increase in technology fees - falls $33 million short of covering a $112 million hole created by a $52 million loss in state funding, a loss of $38 million in federal stimulus money, and growth in costs such as utilities and pension contributions, said Kenn Marshall, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Each of the 14 schools must come up with a portion of that $33 million, the percentage to be based on enrollment and other factors. Each will decide where and what to cut, he said.

"Our universities will have to find additional ways to reduce their budgets," said state system chancellor John Cavanaugh. "We must keep tuition affordable for our students and their families."

The new annual tuition for full-time, in-state undergraduates will be $6,240.

In the last decade, the state schools have cut $220 million through collective purchasing, energy efficiencies, and other measures, officials said. A voluntary retirement program culled 257 workers last year, and voluntary furloughs eliminated 28 more jobs.

The combined annual savings is $10 million.

Still, the cost of college is constantly rising. Between 1998 and 2008, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public schools rose 32 percent, adjusted for inflation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Private-school prices rose 24 percent.

Temple completed a budget that includes a $36 million reduction in operating expenses, the second major reduction in three years.

In 2010, Temple permanently cut $40 million. It plans to achieve the new reduction mostly from administrative expenses. All schools, colleges, and administrative units have been asked to trim.

Administrators will get no raises this year, hiring and travel have been frozen, and searches for several new deans were suspended. To help high-achieving but needy students go to Temple, financial aid will grow $6.8 million to a total of $81.8 million.

"We remain dedicated to providing a high-quality public education to tens of thousands of students who have come to rely on Temple University," president Ann Weaver Hart said.

Tuition for in-state students will grow $1,172, from $11,834 to $13,006. The increase for out-of-state students is $1,170, from $21,662 to $22,832, officials said.

Mandatory fees will remain $295 per semester.

"College is just really expensive," said Speers, a communications major who works an unpaid internship at Philabundance along with her restaurant job at Fare.

"I don't have many days off at all. It's been exhausting, but it's making me money. . . . I'm trying to save up as much as possible."