Regents Recommend Tuition Hike

For State University System

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Keith M. Phaneuf

©The Connecticut Mirror

The Board of Regents for Higher Education is recommending a 3.8 percent increase in tuition and fees at the four Connecticut State Universities and 3.1 percent at the 12 community colleges for the upcoming school year.

This recommendation was slated to be voted on Thursday [after The Bee went to press] by the full board, just two days after the proposal was released. A spokeswoman for the regents was unable to say whether a public hearing was ever held on the proposal.

The increase means in-state CSU students living on campus will need to pay $19,119, or $676 more next school year. Tuition for the community colleges will jump $108.

This proposal comes one year after the institutions saw the lowest tuition and fee increases in years and drastic cuts in state funding.

The increase does not require legislative approval. Governor Dannel P. Malloy last year asked the system not to increase tuition more than inflation when substantially cutting their budget, a goal they met. When the University of Connecticut, which is not part of the CSU system, voted to increase tuition faster than inflation — or about 25 percent for next four school years — to hire more 290 more faculty, Malloy’s office did not come out in opposition.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Malloy, called the increase a “fairly modest” one, adding their promising to spend that money on new faculty is a “great sign.”

Mike Meotti, executive vice president for the regents, said the 100,000-student system needs the tuition increase for the same reason. The share of full-time faculty at CSUS, the community colleges and the state’s online college has dropped nearly 10 percent over the past eight years, reports the Board of Regents.