A Kansas University education is going to cost more beginning this fall.

Tuition rates increased 25.2 percent this year from $77.75 to $97.35 per credit hour for an undergraduate student from Kansas. The Board of Regents approved the increase in June.

“No one ever wants a tuition increase,” Chancellor Robert Hemenway said, “but KU is seriously underfunded compared to our peer universities. Our students and the people of Kansas can’t afford for that to continue. The board asked regents institutions last fall to develop plans that would use tuition dollars to enhance educational quality on each campus. The proposal we’ve submitted achieves that goal.”

Regents also approved increases at other state universities: 25.1 percent at Kansas State, 9 percent at Wichita State and Emporia State, 11.4 percent at Pittsburg State and 6.4 percent at Fort Hays State.

At KU, the debate over tuition increases, which began in November, was sometimes heated as a divided campus weighed the benefits of increased funding with the drawbacks of a more expensive education.

And students may need to brace for another large tuition increase next year, as officials strive for funding similar to the university’s peers. Administrators have discussed doubling tuition rates by 2006.

How to spend it?

KU officials said the tuition increase was necessary to keep up with the competition and move toward Hemenway’s goal of becoming a top-25 research university.

They plan to use the extra money about $11 million in several areas, including salaries for faculty, staff and graduate teaching and research assistants, improving minority recruitment and retention, implementing online enrollment, and improving libraries and teaching facilities.

Hemenway plans to create an advisory committee to oversee how the money is spent.

But with possible midyear budget recisions looming, he said the money could be used for more basic services.

“I don’t want to answer a hypothetical question,” he said. “But if we’re truly in a disastrous situation you always go back to the first principle, and that’s the classroom. You do everything you can to preserve academics.”

New grants

KU officials said they were sensitive to concerns that tuition increases could price some students out of an education.

They said they were confident the $2.2 million set aside for new grants would cover students’ additional unmet financial needs created by the tuition hike. About 3,900 students initially will receive the grants.

They also point out that although tuition is increasing by 25.2 percent, it represents only about a 3 percent increase in the total cost of attending the university. The total average cost, including room and board, books, tuition, fees, travel and miscellaneous expenses, was $11,400 last year.

Campus debate

KU administrators in November began a series of presentations about tuition to students, faculty and staff.

But the meetings angered some students, who said they wanted discussions not presentations on the issue.

“It’s my opinion KU has done an embarrassingly poor job of informing students about the decisions that affect the university as a whole,” then-student body president Justin Mills told the Board of Regents in January.

So at the urging of Student Senate and University Council, Hemenway agreed to form a committee of students, faculty and staff to study tuition.

After months of meetings, the committee recommended a plan almost identical to the one approved by regents.

Students also held two protests at Wescoe Beach to raise awareness about tuition hikes. At one of the protests, students became frustrated that no administrators were present and moved their protest to the office of David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor.

“The state of Kansas is having a budget crisis,” said Megan Johnson, a freshman in American studies and journalism. “Well, the students of KU and their families are having a budget crisis.”

Underfunded

Regents selected five universities in the mid-1970s to be “peer institutions” for KU. Those universities the universities of Oregon, Iowa, Colorado, North Carolina and Oklahoma are still used today.

Twenty-five years ago, when the peers were selected, KU was funded at about 90 cents for every dollar the other universities were funded. Over time, that number has slipped to 80 cents.

“It would be nice if we had the funding from the state so we didn’t have to consider this” tuition increase, said Shulenburger. “We’re used to having very low tuition, and I’m afraid that’s going to end. We’ve been known as being very cheap.”

Comparisons to KU’s peers do show that KU has room to raise tuition, Shulenburger said. KU’s tuition last year was 86.9 percent the average of its peer schools. Only the University of Oklahoma had lower rates.

KU’s in-state tuition ranked eighth of the 11 public universities in the Big 12. K-State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are cheaper.

And only the University of Arizona and the University of Florida are cheaper for residents among the 34 public schools in the Association of American Universities, an organization of schools that place a high emphasis on research.