Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--While improved state funding for universities has provided much-needed assistance in faculty and staff compensation, tuition increases being considered by the state College Board are needed to help Mississippi State move forward in serving the state's citizens and its students, said MSU President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong.
"We very much appreciate legislative funding in support of higher education," Foglesong said. "State funds will help us fulfill approximately two-thirds of our priorities for the coming year, with tuition providing approximately one-third.
"Our universities must be adequately resourced to ensure an education that keeps Mississippi students competitive in a global work environment," Foglesong added. "No one relishes the idea of raising tuition, but there are returns to our students and our state as we move the university forward."
The state Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning, recommended system-wide increases in tuition and campus housing at its May meeting and will vote on the proposal in June. For MSU, a 7 percent tuition and an 8.5 percent campus housing increase was recommended. The board also is considering a system-wide temporary utility surcharge.
"The increases will permit Mississippi State to do many things it needs to do to help the institution and the state move ahead," Foglesong said. "We can work within this framework, even though we still have critical unfunded requirements that amount to approximately $3.6 million."
The average tuition increase in the 16-state region of the Southern Regional Education Board for the years 2001 to 2006 was 71.8 percent, compared to a 48 percent change for the years 2001 to 2007 for Mississippi State.
"It's hard to keep up with our peers--as this state deserves--with this increasing gap in revenue," Foglesong said.
Hiring new faculty is a top Mississippi State priority in allocation of new revenues, Foglesong said.
"We're aware that students sometimes can't get the classes they need in order to graduate in close to four years," he said. "We want to minimize expensive delays for students who have to spend additional time on campus in order to take required courses."
Improving need-based assistance for Mississippi students also continues to be an MSU priority, Foglesong said.
"We're very sensitive to the burdens rising costs place on families whose incomes are already stretched," Foglesong said. "Mississippi State is committed to providing assistance that keeps lower-income Mississippians from being squeezed out of higher education."
Among other MSU needs Foglesong identified are strengthening library resources, covering spiraling energy costs and ensuring that academic programs have resources required to meet national accreditation standards.
One of the significant financial drains in the last two years has been dramatically higher energy bills, he said. "We've implemented an aggressive energy conservation plan that has helped reduce costs, but we're still facing an approximately 30 percent increase in just two years."