Posted on Sat, Jul. 11, 2009
NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. - Facing deep cuts in its appropriation, Pennsylvania State University trustees yesterday approved raising the base in-state tuition on the main campus by up to 9.8 percent, or $1,280 a year, a decision one trustee called "heart-wrenching."
It is the more severe of two price plans for 2009-10 that the trustees, meeting on the New Kensington campus near Pittsburgh, authorized administrators to implement, depending on how Penn State fares in the commonwealth's final budget.
A less-severe price plan, raising the base in-state main-campus rate by 4.5 percent or $590 a year, would be imposed if a 13 percent appropriation cut facing the university is erased over the next seven days. As of late yesterday, there was little indication that any such budget breakthrough in Harrisburg would occur by then.
The yearly base rate on Penn State's main campus for in-state freshmen and sophomores was $13,014 in 2008-09, and the worst-case plan approved yesterday would be the largest percentage increase since 2003-04.
Even with that higher tuition, Penn State faces tens of millions of dollars in cuts.
In May, Penn State expected that federal stimulus money would enable the school to offset a 6 percent cut in its appropriation for 2009-10. But Gov. Rendell has since proposed a deeper 13 percent cut below the current funding level, with no stimulus money being used. Penn State said that if a favorable budget resolution is reached later, it could modify the tuition increases downward for the spring semester.
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