Pastides, trustees blame state funding issues
Tuition and fees for USC’s flagship campus and all but one of USC’s regional campuses will increase at an average rate of 3.15 percent, the board of trustees announced Monday.
President Harris Pastides was reluctant to enact an increase, saying he wished it was a “zero percent” increase, but continued drops in state funding forced the university’s hand, he said.
“No one would have preferred a zero percent tuition increase more than you or me,” Pastides said, “but other priorities were chosen by state government for funding.”
This is the second consecutive increase at that rate — the lowest since 1999. It comes after state Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Pastides and other college presidents, urging them to keep in-state tuition increases at 3.16 percent or lower. The Senate Finance Committee controls the state budget, and, thus, the level of funding USC receives.
For South Carolina residents, USC hit just below that maximum point. In-state rates will rise by $328 a year, or 3.13 percent.
Out-of-state rates will increase by $884 a year — up 3.2 percent.
Tuition and fees will go up to $10,816 for in-state students, while out-of-state students will pay $28,528 each year. Chief Financial Officer Ed Walton projected that South Carolina students would end up paying $4,800 each year on average, once scholarships were accounted for.
The tuition increase was passed as a part of the university’s budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The $1.3 billion to be spent in the USC system in the coming year is a 1.27 percent increase from last year. The projected level of state funding for the Columbia campus will be 7.23 percent of USC’s entire budget. Ten percent of the budget for the entire USC system will be funded by the state under the current drafts of the bill. The state covered about 10.5 percent of last year’s budget.
USC trustees expressed frustration at the school’s dwindling state allocations. In 2008, USC received $225 million in state funding. The USC system is expected to receive $131 million this year, 41.8 percent less than before the recession.
University President Harris Pastides agreed with the trustees.
“We’re not funded according to quality or amount of service,” Pastides said. “We need a new dialogue, a new discussion, a new case to be made.”
While USC’s tuition is still low among public institutions, so is its level of state funding. Among public institutions in the Southeastern Conference, USC’s combined tuition and state funding per student is second lowest, beaten only by the University of Mississippi, according to a board budget presentation. The University of Kentucky receives more state funding per student than each in-state student pays in tuition. Among schools USC has designated as peers, USC has the lowest combined tuition and state funding per student. That group includes Clemson and the University of North Carolina.
USC Beaufort will see a tuition increase of 4.9 percent and is the only school in the USC system exceeding the level of tuition growth set by Leatherman.
USC Beaufort increased at a similar rate last year due to the school’s switch from a two-year campus to a four-year campus in 2002.
“Rather than boosting tuition all at once, they’re doing it over time,” said Wes Hickman, a USC spokesman. “The goal is to eventually get tuition equal to that at (USC) Aiken.”
Tuition and fees for USC’s professional programs will also increase this fall. The School of Law’s tuition will go up 3.1 percent, while College of Pharmacy will have a tuition hike of 3 percent. The School of Medicine’s tuition will go up 5 percent, the most of all USC institutions discussed Monday. The School of Law’s and College of Pharmacy’s increases are in line with previous ones, but the School of Medicine’s increase is 2 percentage points higher this year. Its increase also applies to the School of Medicine’s Greenville campus, which is welcoming its second class beginning this July.