As the debate over tuition increases continues in Albany, UB President John Simpson has had an active role in trying to implement a tuition hike plan that allows students to better prepare for SUNY tuition increases.
With SUNY tuition jumping $900 last year, and the cost of attending UB steadily increasing, Simpson said he agrees with SUNY Chancellor Robert King's plan to raise tuition only at a student's time of enrollment.
"Tuition that any student would pay would be understood that it would only increase for the incoming student, and then would stay constant throughout their time here," Simpson said.
But Simpson said there are a few extra conditions that would have to be in place for him to support the tuition plan. First, he said it would be necessary to increase financial aid to make up for the hikes.
"If you're going to increase tuition, it better have a way to compensate, a way to increase financial aid," Simpson said. "You don't want to cut people out."
For Simpson to improve a tuition plan, he would also have to be sure "the state does its part to pay for inflation, it's predictable and stable for any student during their college career in SUNY, and we see an increase through (TAP) or whatever resource we have to have an adequate aid program," he said.
According to Simpson, most SUNY presidents are also in favor of an increase under the same conditions, and SUNY would still cost less than many other public and private universities.
Simpson said in the long run, having a set tuition increase plan could even be used a recruiting tool for enrollments.
"Students and their families will know what to expect, and you know what your tuition will be," he said. "If it's going to be constant and predictable, people can plan, especially if you couple a university tuition increase with a good financial aid program."
Simpson said the tuition increase could better the university by increasing its resources.
"I support an increase in funds to university if they come from tuition, if it means we can increase the quality of our university," he said. "We've got this potential policy that increases student tuition and stays constant for students while they are here, and at the same time the cost of running the university will increase due to various kinds of inflation."
Simpson said the two largest sources of inflation will come from the cost of utilities and the cost of negotiated salary increase. The salary increases are negotiated by SUNY and the numbers are given to each school afterwards.
SUNY would also determine the size of the annual increase using a price index based on inflation and cost.
"The overall result of this is UB having new money coming into it to improve its quality," Simpson said. "What would I do with money? Improve the number and kind of faculty, the teaching faculty, the laboratories, and academic enterprise. Students would see increased quality of instruction and support. The better the university, the more valuable the diploma."
Simpson said there are various faculty areas he would like to improve on.
"UB2020 is trying to understand how we can better use the resources we have now and how to optimize that," he said.
Improvements in student support services, course sizes, and research opportunities are also a few of the things Simpson said are on his wish list.
If annual increases are implemented along with greater financial aid, Simpson added, the combination of both would enable UB to better help its students.
"It would also mean I would have better resources than I do now as a university president that would help deal with issues of financial aid," he said.
The incremental tuition increase plan would, however, take at least a year to go into effect, meaning all students would have to pay an increase next semester if there is one, according to Simpson.
Simpson said he would rather see the state foot the bill until a permanent plan is applied, but in reality that won't happen.
As far as a time frame, Simpson said the legislature would debate the plan this spring for next year's budget.
"There will be a decision in the next few months when the state budget is finalized, and tuition is only one of many issues that will be discussed and debated," he said.
In determining how much each increase would be for the incoming class, Simpson said the increment would be calculated by the amount of increase in cost described by higher education price index, because it's the best estimate of expenses of delivering higher education.
Last year's big tuition increase of $900 was the consequence of a few different economic increases, Simpson said, and although rumors about an increase for the upcoming year of somewhere between $500 and $600 have circulated around SUNY headquarters, he said none of that could be confirmed.
"I don't know what's going to happen next year," he said. "There is a governor's budget that proposes a $500 increase for SUNY students, debated in increase how much state support SUNY would receive."
Simpson said if tuition were raised $500, it would be to match incoming support from SUNY.
"Right now the probability of next year's increase will be between zero and $500," Simpson said. "I don't have a clue where it will end up in that range."
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
