A drop in state financing means the two colleges could increase tuition beyond the rates set last fall.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 23, 2006

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

In an unusual, last-minute move, tuition and fees at two of Rhode Island's three public colleges will increase beyond the rates set last fall, if the Board of Governors of Higher Education approves the changes at a meeting next week to help close a budget gap.

Students at the Community College of Rhode Island would have to pay $216 more in tuition and fees for the coming academic year, an 8.7-percent increase, for a total of $2,686 a year for in-state students.

Originally, the Board of Governors said the increase would be more modest -- 3.3 percent, or $74 a year. But sluggish enrollment at CCRI coupled with a drop in state financing means the community college will face a shortfall of about $2.5 million in the coming year, according to budget projections by the Office of Higher Education.

Rates also would be higher at Rhode Island College, which is facing a $3.1-million shortfall next year. Instead of a 4.9-percent increase, or $208 more a year for in-state students, tuition and fees would increase by $282 a year, or 6 percent, for a total of $4,958.

"This was an exceptionally tough budget year," said Jack Warner, Rhode Island's commissioner of higher education. In past years, the Board of Governors has stuck with the tuition and fee rates they set each autumn, no matter how bleak the budget becomes in subsequent months. That was impossible this year, Warner said.

The state was facing a $77-million shortfall for the current fiscal year and predicted a $220-million shortfall in the next fiscal year, if cuts were not made. The state's three public colleges were forced to cut $3.4 million from their budgets in the middle of the fiscal year, leaving scores of vacant positions unfilled.

In addition, $3.5 million was cut from the fiscal year 2007 higher education budget request. Also Governor Carcieri's plan to trim the state work force by 5 percent, reducing the higher education budget by another $5.6 million. For CCRI, RIC, URI and the Office of Higher Education, the work-force reduction represents a loss of about 64 positions. Those jobs will either go unfilled or remain vacant when people leave, Warner said.

"We are reeling from those three actions," he said. "At the same time, we are trying to keep our institutions, in relative terms, affordable."

The proposed tuition and fee hikes at RIC and CCRI, while regrettable, are modest when compared with similar institutions in other states, Warner said.

A 6-percent increase at the University of Rhode Island remains the same. Students will pay $437 more next year, for a total of $7,721 for in-state students.

Out-of-state student and graduate student tuition and fee rates at URI will rise by 7.5 percent, up from projected increases of 7.1 percent and 6 percent respectively. That alone will not cover URI's projected shortfall of $6.6 million. But the university is expecting 500 more freshmen, for an entering class of about 2,950. The extra students, a mixture of in-state and out-of-state students, will generate $7.3 million, Warner said.

The Board of Governors will vote on the proposed changes Thursday at its 5 p.m. meeting.

In addition, URI's $140-million bond request for three new buildings -- pharmacy, chemistry and nursing -- scheduled to go before voters this fall, has been scaled back. Instead, URI will seek $65 million for the pharmacy building alone, Warner said.

Officials worried that voters would reject the more ambitious request, given the state's fiscal problems.

Warner said the public colleges are grateful that $7.9 million in asset protection was restored by the General Assembly, as was $1.2 million to finish renovations of URI's largest academic building, Independence Hall. The nearly $9-million project is scheduled to be completed by the start of the fall semester, said Linda Barrett, URI's director of budget and financial planning.

If the money had not been restored, "it would have been a real challenge because it was a priority to get that building back on line," Barrett said.

jjordan@projo.com / (401) 277-7254