Brittani Lusk - DAILY HERALD | Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2008 11:00 pm
The cost of higher education in Utah has traditionally been low, but it's creeping up -- blame it on the Legislature and personnel costs.
Associate Commissioner of Higher Education Mark Spencer said schools have been having to fund more and more expenses with tuition since 2002 because legislative funding has not kept up with costs, something that is happening across the country.
"They just have a lot of competing needs," Spencer said.
In its report on each state's higher education affordability, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has given Utah bad marks. In 2000 Utah got an A, by 2002 it had slipped to a B and by 2006 the grade was a C-.
For the last several decades, the price of college tuition has been rising much faster than inflation. Spencer said that has to do with the number of people it takes to make a school work.
"Inflation is a very general number," Spencer said. "(The cost of anything) where 80 percent of the expenses are in personnel would go up higher than inflation."
Even though Utah schools are moving toward the average for schools in the western United States, Linda Makin, Utah Valley State College's director of budgets, said tuition in Utah is still inexpensive.
"We're still below average," Makin said. "It's still a good deal."
She said the school is trying to keep tuition low, but costs keep going up and students want more services. Wireless Internet is now free at UVSC, but students are paying for it with tuition, and the student government agreed to the increase.
Tuition won't jump when UVSC becomes Utah Valley University, which happens July 1. Makin said it's one of the most common questions asked about the transition to university status, but tuition at UVSC already matches that of schools like Southern Utah University and Weber State University that will be comparable to UVU.
Cameron Martin, assistant to the president for institutional development and planning at UVSC, said none of the transition to university has been funded by the students. It has been funded by the $10 million promised by the Legislature. Of that, $8 million was allocated last year. The remaining $2 million will hopefully be allocated this year.
Spencer said he doesn't expect college tuition in Utah to rocket past the average. He thinks it will level off soon. This year the average state-wide tuition increase of 6.6 percent was the lowest it has been in six years.
• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at blusk@heraldextra.com.