Budget limits college tuition hikes

At Clemson University Friday, student Leandria Streeter, 20, talks about the rising cost of tuition at Clemson and the state's plan to try and hold the line on tuition increases. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story Related Related stories: • Cuts are major threat, Clemson president says

His proposal to the state Legislature would limit any increases to the Higher Education Price Index, a Washington company's measure of inflation affecting college and university operations.

The rate generally measures between 2 percent and 5 percent, said Charlie FitzSimmons of the state Commission on Higher Education. The 2003 rate was 2.5 percent and the 2002 rate was 4.8 percent. Students have faced double-digit percentage increases in tuition at Clemson University and other schools in recent years.

Clemson student Leandria Streeter would welcome any relief. For two years, the 20-year-old junior has racked up $20,000 in student loans. Tuition has gone up almost $1,000 per semester from $2,545 when she was a freshmen to the $3,467 she paid this fall.

The computer engineer major works part time on campus and, along with friends, is always on the lookout for possible scholarships.

"I don't know if I'm going to have to take out loans for my senior year," she said Friday afternoon in Clemson's student center.

Because she is an out-of-state student, Hannah Hager's parents pay more than double the in-state rate for her tuition. A cap on rising tuition would be a relief, she said.

Hager, 20, is from Athens, Ga., and doesn't have any scholarships. "It would be much more helpful to my parents if they knew what to expect," she said.

Sanford's spokesman, Will Folks, said the cost of "waste, duplication, lack of focus on core mission and the overall lack of a statewide vision for higher education" is costing college students and their families in the form of higher tuition.

Sanford also is pushing for a governing board "to better target the dollars we spend in South Carolina on higher ed," Folks said. "The governor's bottom line is that waste, duplication and lack of coordination in the system shouldn't be passed on to parents. It should be eliminated."

State Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he anticipates that the House version of the state's budget also will include a cap on tuition, but it may be different from the governor's proposal.

"He's on the right track when he tries to limit how much tuition can go up," Harrell said.

Harrell said many South Carolina students at state schools have LIFE scholarships that pay $5,000 a year for their education and other state scholarships, so a modest tuition increase "isn't such a blow to them."

Spokesmen at Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, the state's two largest universities, said tuition won't be set until later in the year.

Since 1999, USC tuition has risen 48 percent and Clemson's tuition has more than doubled, with school officials citing state budget cuts to higher education.

USC's in-state tuition is $5,778 a year, and it costs $6,958 annually at Clemson.

Tuition is expected to be set in early June at USC, said university spokesman Russ McKinney. USC President Andrew Sorenson was out of the state and couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

Cathy Sams, spokeswoman for Clemson University, said South Carolina ranks third nationally in cuts to higher education over the past two years. "There's a direct correlation between the budget cuts and tuition increases," she said.

Clemson's tuition decision, expected after the state Legislature concludes its budget process, "will depend ultimately" on what Clemson's academic and operations budget is, Sams said.

Sanford's proposal would cut 3.5 percent from Clemson's academic and operations budget and 41 percent from the school's public service activities budget, which funds informational programs that serve the public.

Current controversy over the proposed cut to Clemson's public service is a separate issue from tuition, Sams said, because tuition funds only Clemson's academic budget and not the public service budget.

"Tuition doesn't have any bearing on the PSA budget, which is the primary point of discussion at this time," Sams said. "That's a discussion we would need to hold until we know about cuts to the academic budget."

The state budget process takes about five months as debate moves through the Legislature. The governor and several lawmakers have said to expect cuts as they grapple with a $350 million state deficit.

Ronnie Booth, president of Tri-County Technical College, where tuition has doubled in the last four years from $600 a semester to $1,225, said colleges have become more efficient in recent years under pressure from state budget cuts. But he said, "There's a limit to what we can do."

The technical college tries not to raise tuition to keep education affordable for everyone, "But we have to run the college," Booth said. "We have to pay faculty, we have to pay staff, we have to pay utilities."

He fears that the cap would tie the local governing board's hands in the face of rising expenses and result in cuts to service.

Clemson student Taylor Horton, 20, worries what a cap might do to his school.

The economics major said it would help his parents, but he wonders where Clemson would find needed money if a tuition hike couldn't be as large as it might need.

"I worry about a cap and then students who can't maintain their scholarships and will have to leave school," he said. "I think that's where the money crisis is."

Part of Horton's tuition is paid for by the LIFE scholarship, and he said he works hard to keep it. The scholarship has increased each year that he has been at Clemson so tuition increases haven't been so much of a burden, he said.