In-state, out-of-state tuition set to go up $320, $1,291 respectively
USC is raising its tuition once again for the 2012-2013 academic year.
According to a proposal to the board of trustees executive committee, South Carolina students will see their bills increase by $320 per year, bringing the total cost of tuition to $10,488. That’s a 3.15 percent increase and corresponding to inflation, said university President Harris Pastides at the executive committee meeting June 15. It’s also the smallest percent tuition increase for in-state students since 1999, and with funding from the South Carolina education lottery covering about half of most students’ tuition, Pastides said net average for most students will remain under $6,000 per year.
The same can’t be said for non-S.C. residents, who make up about 32 percent of the university’s population. Their tuition will rise at a faster rate, by 4.9 percent, or $1,291. That amounts to $27,463, more than twice what in-state students pay.
The split increase marks a break for the university, which usually increases its resident and nonresident tuition at the same rates. This is the first year Associate Vice President for Finance Leslie Brunelli can remember them changing at different rates. She said the difference was due to the need to respond to the tuition marketplace, since tuition is the university’s primary source of revenue.
“We have to strategically develop a budget based on the payer mix,” Brunelli said. “The state subsidizes South Carolina residents, but pays nothing toward the cost of education for non-residents.”
These same rates will apply to the university system’s other campuses and programs, including its medical and law schools. All totals include the university’s required technology fee, which is $400 per year, as well as a $6 increase in student activity fees to pay for Student Government’s legal services initiative.
USC’s tuition rate will not be finalized until the board’s next meeting June 29, after the state budget is passed. The S.C. legislature usually comes out with its final budget around mid-June, but extended debate in both houses has dragged out the decision longer than usual, according to USC Chief Finance Officer Ed Walton.
Increased demands from the state lie at the heart of this year’s tuition increase. While a house-amended version of the 2012-2013 appropriations bill gives USC more in total state funding, new pay package mandates for employee pay raises, increased retirement and other fringe benefits, in addition to the inflated cost of living, are raising the university’s expenses by $17 million. State money will only cover about $5.7 million. Altogether, state funding still only covers 10.5 percent of the university’s operating budget, about the same rate it has been since the beginning of the recession in fiscal year 2008.
The proposed budget allocations for general university operations do not include current reserved funds from the Capitol Reserve and the state lottery of about $5 million for the Palmetto College initiative, up to $8.5 million for facilities maintenance and $10 million to construct the law school, all of which will be funded with reserves.
“That funding is essential but support for the university is not rebounding, and it does not address the greatest annual needs we have for educating our students,” Pastides said. “Unfortunately, the increases that we will be getting from the state this year are not going to even keep pace with the inflationary costs of providing education.”
The same issues are plaguing other state-funded universities in South Carolina, many of whom have already approved similar tuition increases. Last week, the College of Charleston increased its tuition 3.15 percent for in-state students and 4 percent for out-of-state students. Clemson University followed suit, with a 3 percent increase for S.C. students and 4 percent for non-residents. Clemson’s undergraduate in-state tuition is already 21 percent higher than USC’s.
In the meantime, Pastides said USC is searching for a solution to the rising costs of college. He has been given confidence by the Senate’s passage of a joint-resolution for accountability-based funding for S.C. public colleges and universities, which would reward schools based on in-state enrollment, freshman retention and graduation rates. The proposal did not make it into this year’s public works committee session, but Pastides hopes to continue advocating for the bill next year.
“Until the state budgeting process for our public universities is resolved, it is most unfortunate that we need to keep pace with inflation by increasing tuition modestly,” Pastides said. “We don’t want to balance our budget on tuition increases, but that is our reality at the present time.”