The University Board of Trustees approved a 6 percent undergraduate tuition increase for UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga and UT Martin campuses beginning in the fall, leaving some board members questioning if the raise would assist in reaching a Top 25 ranking in U.S. News and World Report.
The decision was made at the full board meeting Thursday and is a part of the overall University budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which is included in the overall revenue increases.
In-state tuition for UT Knoxville campus are to increase by $468 annually, changing the $7,802 in-state cost to $8,270.
The raises will go into effect in August.
New freshmen and transfer students entering fall 2013 will pay an in-state tuition of $9,780, These students will also be charged for 15 credit hours instead of 12 hours, and board members said these students can expect tuition increases of no more than 3 percent annually for the next three years.
System President Joe DiPietro said other options were researched to avoid tuition raises and still garner funds.
“We’re always looking at that,” DiPietro said. “Knoxville is way behind it’s peers. We receive about $6,000 or $7,000 per student and some of the schools, such as North Carolina where the tuition is lower than here, receives around $20,000. So we’ll always look at the state and say, ‘can you help replace the money that we’ve lost?'”
Board members also approved university administrators’ pay. DiPietro’s annual salary will increase from $445,567.56 to $465,618.12 and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek will experience a pay increase of 10 percent, increasing his base salary to $434,451.60. Both changes go into effect July 1.
Board member Douglas A. Horne of Knoxville disagreed and said avoiding more action needed to take place to avoid raising the tuition cost.
“I personally feel we should show more initiative here and not raise the
tuition,” Horne said. “I’d personally not like to raise it.”
Horne said that the University should model other schools by cutting from other areas for funds instead of raising how much students pay. Other members argued that the raise was necessary in order to keep in line with the Top 25 initiative.
Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said the tuition increase is necessary to make improvements to the campus overall student life.
“We have to have a tuition large enough to keep our campus moving in the right direction,” Cheek said. “That is keeping the best faculty and hiring the best faculty and making sure we’re offering the courses students need, all those kinds of things that need to be done.
“If we don’t have those resources, than we can’t compete with other universities.”
Student fee increases were approved as well, including a UT Knoxville transportation increase fee from $52 to $120.
All meeting webcasts from the two-day event can be accessed at http://www.tennessee.edu.
