STRATEGIC INVESTMENT PRIORITY:
CAMPUS TUITION FREEZE
Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses and Penn College are major contributors to workforce development in Pennsylvania.
— In Fall 2005, 36,768 students were enrolled at one of the University’s 19 Commonwealth Campuses across the Commonwealth or at Penn College. This represented nearly 46 percent of Penn State’s total enrollment.
— These campuses offer many educational programs that are specifically designed to meet the needs of business and industry in the communities that they serve.
— Last year, nearly 9,500 adult students (students 24 years old or older) were enrolled at these campuses, representing nearly 26 percent of the total enrollment. Adult students made up 25 percent or more of the enrollment at 10 of the 19 Commonwealth Campuses.
— Many campuses have historically served a role similar to community colleges. Just over 7,200 students enrolled in Associate Degree programs at the Commonwealth Campuses and Penn College last fall. Commonwealth Campus and Penn College students received 12.5 percent of the Associate Degrees awarded by Pennsylvania colleges and universities in 2003-04. Penn State is the Commonwealth’s single largest provider of associate degrees.
Because of state and national economic conditions, Penn State has faced reductions in its appropriations from the Commonwealth in three of the last five years. In 2001-02, the University’s initial appropriation was $334,813,000. For 2005-06, the appropriations are only $323,562,000 (including the funds for the College of Medicine directed through the Department of Public Welfare as proposed by the State). This is three percent less than it was five years ago.
At the same time, Penn State has faced dramatic increases in costs such as health care, insurances, technology,
maintenance, and library materials. As an example, health care costs increased by $59 million, or 92 percent, from
2001-02 to 2005-06.
To compensate for health care increases alone would require an appropriation increase of 20
percent. Throughout this period, the University also maintained a high priority on competitive faculty salaries,
based on a plan approved by the Board of Trustees to regain ground lost in the previous five years.
Over the past decade, as support from the Commonwealth has diminished, the burden of financing higher education has increasingly fallen on our students and their families. As a result, Penn State’s tuition is currently the highest in the nation for public universities — effectively raising barriers of affordability for many.
The Commonwealth Campuses are facing growing pressure on tuition to the point where access is at risk. Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses and Penn College were created specifically to open opportunity and broaden access to higher education in the communities that they serve. We must ensure that this aspect of our land-grant mission continues.
Our appropriation request includes a modest increase of 3.7 percent to help cover the basic operating cost increases that are projected in the University’s 2006-07 budget plan. We are proposing that additional appropriation funds be provided, beyond those for basic cost increases, to offset the income generated from the tuition rate increases for the Commonwealth Campuses and Penn College. An additional $15,682,000 would offset the full 5.9 percent tuition rate increase and freeze tuition at current levels for the 19 Commonwealth Campuses. An increase of $3,044,000 would allow a similar tuition freeze for Penn College.
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