Deal averts tuition hike

The Board of Regents voted Tuesday against a midyear tuition increase for the University System of Georgia, thanks in part to a deal made with Gov. Sonny Perdue to downsize budget cuts.

The Board instead approved a series of cuts proposed by Chancellor Thomas Meredith that would, as Perdue had asked, “trim the fat” off the University System’s yearly budget.

While stressing the poor timing of the budget cuts and the importance of maintaining a high quality of education, Meredith said that these cuts to their budget would be the only way to avoid an unprecedented midyear tuition increase.

“We’re pushing the envelope here with the kinds of things we’re recommending to you, but by doing that we can avoid the midyear tuition increase,” Meredith told the board.

While Perdue has made a $3.9 million adjustment of the original $68.7 million in cuts to University System, the board still faced a $64.8 million budget deficit when it met this Tuesday and Wednesday in the Global Learning Center at Technology Square.

In the final plan passed by the board, around $20.3 million will be cut from all around the state’s 34 campuses. Another $27.4 million in reductions will come from shortening the University System’s health care reserves from 60 days to 30 days.

An additional $9.4 million will come from money set aside from previous years for a project that fell through.

The governor still has to ask the state legislature for permission in order to transfer that money over to the University System, however. The board is still looking for ways to make up the remaining $7.3 million.

The approval of the $20.3 million cut means roughly $2 million in cuts for Tech, much less than the expected $7 million. But the cuts still mean additional layoffs, hiring freezes and delayed purchasing and maintenance projects for Tech.

While these reductions will alleviate budget problems for this year, they are only a “one-time solution” Meredith said. The board will not be able to make these same reductions in future years, Meredith said, and long-term solutions need to be sought out.

Regents echoed these same concerns, remarking how in the past few years the board had been “playing catch up” with their budget while trying to absorb the over $313 million in budget cuts they have received since November 2001.

“We feel quite positive about mitigating the immediate financial impact a midyear tuition increase would have had on our students,” Meredith said.

“Still, we know the one-time cost-cutting solutions we have identified are frankly stop-gap measures that only temporarily solve our problems. We will have to find these dollars from other sources for our fiscal year 2006 budget,” he said.

To help address long-term solutions, Meredith has appointed a “tuition task force” that will examine long-term tuition goals at each of the three levels of higher education in Georgia. The task force will be responsible for formulating a plan by the beginning of next year and presenting their findings to the Board of Regents when they meet to decide on next year’s tuition late this spring.

Previously, Meredith appeared to be in favor of proposing a 10 percent midyear tuition increase to make up for the $68.4 million in cuts enforced upon the University System by Perdue after he decided to scratch plans for a one-day payroll shift that had been proposed in the state’s original budget.

The payroll shift, called an accounting gimmick by many, could have affected Georgia state bonds and interest rates, according to the AJC.

The Chancellor’s plan to avoid a midyear tuition increase came as a surprise, but also a relief to many.

Even Amy Phuong, undergraduate student body president, who has battled alongside other Georgia student leaders against the increase and other budget cuts, was taken by surprise by the Chancellor’s announcement.

“I never expected this particular outcome to happen,” Phuong said, “It was a surreal moment because everything happened so quickly.”

Phuong, along with UGA student body president Adam Sparks, had the opportunity to address the Board on Tuesday and represent the student voice in the frenzied talks about tuition increases and budget cuts.

Touching mainly on the budget cuts’ effects on the quality of education found at their respective schools, Phuong and Sparks also spoke about the students’ campaign against budget cuts.

Last Friday, Phuong, Sparks and about 150 other students held a rally in front of the Capitol. Protesting the budget cuts and the possible tuition increase, students held signs and listened to empassioned speeches from various student leaders from around the state.

The rally, which lasted roughly three hours, was capped off by the delivery of the state-wide student petition. The students also presented alternative solutions brought up in their last meeting with Perdue.

According to Mallory Grebel, vice president of UGA’s student government, among the six solutions presented were having a 1.5 percent budget cut across the board, giving tax incentives for businesses hiring Georgia graduates and urging legislators to put more money in higher education.

“We are not stopping just now,” Phuong said, as SGA plans to continue lobbying for higher education. “We want to ensure that the governor puts higher education as a top priority-by putting his money where his mouth is."