OU President David Boren continued to indicate tuition will increase next fall on Tuesday, citing rising employee health insurance costs and high utility payments for campus buildings.
Though he said the construction of new buildings on campus is ending — more than 15 buildings have been built or refurbished since his appointment in 1995 — new buildings mean the university must make utility payments long after construction is complete.
Coupled with the rising costs of university employee health care and lagging state funds, administrators have increased tuition about 6.4 percent on average annually from 2006 to 2011, Chris Kuwitzky, associate vice president and OU chief financial officer, said in an e-mail.
Boren has overseen the completion of nearly $1.8 billion in construction projects since he began his presidency in 1995, according to the president’s welcome message on the OU website.
Many new buildings were constructed using private funds and state bond issues, but once they are complete, the university accrues more landscaping, housekeeping and utility expenses, Boren said.
“The landscaping department screams every time I open a new building,” Boren said.
Maintaining buildings is more cost-effective than delaying maintenance, Boren said
“The presidents before me — I’m not criticizing them because they had such budget problems — they couldn’t do it; they deferred a lot of the maintenance,” Boren said. “And when building maintenance is deferred, it’s worse than it is if you just keep it up all the time.”
New buildings often require new faculty and staff, whose salaries and health care costs amount to significant expenses, Boren said.
“Health care costs, more than anything, eat our lunch every year,” Boren said. “Even with Obamacare, it hasn’t slowed, not one bit. If anything, it’s shot up a little more.”
State appropriations to OU have trended up since 2000, according to documents obtained from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
After a sharp decline in fiscal year 2004, state appropriations continued to climb, peaking in fiscal year 2009. Since 2009, appropriations have decreased again, but are still higher than any time before 2007, according to the documents.
At the same time, OU’s total operating budget has increased every year since 1995 — except between 2009 and 2010 — and state appropriations have decreased as a percentage of the university’s total operating budget.
State appropriations as a percentage of OU’s operating budget have declined from 54.1 percent in 2000 to 32.8 percent in 2011, Kuwitzky said in an e-mail.
In 1995, OU’s total operating budget was $281,619,667, according to the OU Factbook. OU’s total operating budget this fiscal year is $771,658,679 — a 174 percent increase.
A possible tuition increase of 4.5 percent was first reported by Fitch Ratings, one of the top three credit rating agencies in the U.S, in a Jan. 18 analysis of OU’s ability to repay investors.
The report stated the loss of federal stimulus funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 could result in 4.5 percent tuition rate increases after 2011.
Stimulus funds softened tuition increases, even allowing the university to implement a tuition freeze in fiscal year 2009.
Elizabeth Rucker, a member of Students for a Democratic Society, said university administrators should be able to do more to avoid tuition increases.
“Tuition hikes hurt the most vulnerable students, and so why not find other things in the budget we can cut?” asked Rucker, international studies and interdisciplinary perspectives on the environment junior. “Like the administrators carrying six-figure salaries, and we don’t know what they do.”
Boren said tuition increases have been necessary to maintain the quality of OU’s education.
“Look, I don’t want to cut my faculty salary back,” Boren said. “…Personnel costs are the biggest part of our budget. Then I would have to be laying off people. I’d have to cut into the nerves, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”
To offset increased costs, the university has implemented a general hiring freeze and cut departmental budgets by 5 percent, Kuwitzky said in an e-mail.
“We do everything possible to avoid increases in tuition while continuing to provide a quality education for our students that is among the lowest, in terms of cost, in the Big 12,” Kuwitzky said. “When a tuition increase is necessary, we try to keep it as low as possible.”
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darlingt 1 year, 2 months ago
Things like this are what UOSA needs to be focusing on -- not "Puppies on the South Oval". If I want a puppy on the South Oval, I'll adopt one from a shelter and take him for a walk. I want lower tuition, and it's up to our elected student representatives and the administration to work out a mutually agreeable situation.
weilersm 1 year, 2 months ago
Puppies with UOSA is a positive event which shows not only that the University cares about community service, but also provides an opportunity for students to meet with their UOSA representatives. Unfortunately, many students don't respond well to Meet & Greets without specific incentive. In this case, people got excited about the puppies (which didn't cost UOSA anything), and it brought them out to interact with UOSA. If you want UOSA to do things, it's up to you to go to their events, meet the representatives, and tell them what you actually want them to do about it. That's why they make themselves available on campus through events like these.
Denniswilson 1 year, 2 months ago
Ask Boren to cut salaries for athletic coaches and ask all employees to share more of their medical costs. Obama and Obama Care will lead to oh bummer as many costs will increase. Just wait and see.
bruenig 1 year, 2 months ago
Focusing on tuition will put members of UOSA at odds with the administrative officials that they are trying to network with. It wont happen. Other groups have to pick up the slack as much as possible.