rockdale80
03-27-2005, 06:46 PM
Full-time students at Texas A&M University will be charged for a 15-hour course load starting in the fall after regents approved a flat-rate tuition policy during a meeting Thursday.
Regents also gave A&M authority to raise tuition by up to $19 per semester credit hour, despite pleadings from several students who said the hike — coupled with flat-rate tuition — will make the university unaffordable.
A student protest against the flat-tuition policy drew only about a half-dozen participants to the Rudder Fountain area before Thursday’s meeting. Organizers hoped hundreds of Aggies would attend.
A few more A&M students pleaded with regents to vote against the flat-tuition policy and tuition hike during a public hearing at the Memorial Student Center.
“With flat-rate tuition, you are putting up a wall many of us will not be able to cross,” student Sarah Peña said as her voice quavered. “For us, coming here is about money. For our parents, it is about money.”
Fall tuition will not be set until the university finds out how much state funding it will receive over the next two fiscal years — an amount that may not be determined until May, when lawmakers finalize a state budget.
Under the flat-tuition policy, students taking 12 hours or more will be charged for a 15-hour course load. A&M President Robert Gates said the policy will speed up the time it takes students to graduate by encouraging them to take at least 15 hours.
Some state lawmakers have pressured public universities to improve graduation rates as a way to save money and allow more students to go through the system.
But Peña, a member of A&M’s Hispanic Presidents Council, told regents that freshmen should have the option to take only 12 hours as freshmen to successfully make the college transition.
And while the measure could punish students for staying too long at A&M, it also will have negative effects for some who are serious about graduating in a timely manner, Peña said. In particular, it would hurt Hispanics from poor South Texas school districts, she said.
The board unanimously approved the flat-rate policy. But Regent Susan Rudd Bailey voted in favor only after telling Gates the university should monitor the policy’s effect on students.
Bailey said it’s important that other A&M goals — from improving diversity on campus to maintaining high freshman retention rates — don’t suffer at the expense of charging a flat tuition.
Gates said progress toward such goals is regularly tracked and the university will not shy from tweaking the flat-rate policy if it begins producing unintended consequences, such as falling grade-point averages or a shift among students toward classes perceived as easy.
Rebates for students who attend summer school are already expected to be added to the policy, Gates said. Students who take 30 credit hours in a year will get refunds for semesters in which they took less than 15.
Although opposition to flat tuition was the focus of most students who addressed regents during the meeting, some spoke against another possible year of hefty tuition increases at the College Station campus.
A&M will only have to increase tuition by $3 per credit hour if the Legislature sends the university $20 million to hire new faculty and give employees pay raises during each year of the biennium, Gates said.
Stanton Calvert, A&M’s vice chancellor for governmental relations, said the university would receive about half that funding in a budget written by the Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan.
But a proposed House budget would cut $20 million that the university received during the 2003 session for the faculty reinvestment plan.
Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on education, said in an interview earlier this month she intends to fight to get the money restored.
If the Senate’s budget were approved — it allocates $437 million to A&M for the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years — the university would increase tuition by less than $10 per credit hour, Gates said.
Gates said during Thursday’s hearing that A&M has done everything possible to cut costs and improve efficiency at the university. Tuition hikes and deeper cuts will occur if the state doesn’t send more money, Gates said.
“More changes and more eliminations are coming,” Gates said. “We’re cutting, we’re cutting a lot, and it hurts. You only have to ask some of the people we’re laying off how much it hurts
Regents also gave A&M authority to raise tuition by up to $19 per semester credit hour, despite pleadings from several students who said the hike — coupled with flat-rate tuition — will make the university unaffordable.
A student protest against the flat-tuition policy drew only about a half-dozen participants to the Rudder Fountain area before Thursday’s meeting. Organizers hoped hundreds of Aggies would attend.
A few more A&M students pleaded with regents to vote against the flat-tuition policy and tuition hike during a public hearing at the Memorial Student Center.
“With flat-rate tuition, you are putting up a wall many of us will not be able to cross,” student Sarah Peña said as her voice quavered. “For us, coming here is about money. For our parents, it is about money.”
Fall tuition will not be set until the university finds out how much state funding it will receive over the next two fiscal years — an amount that may not be determined until May, when lawmakers finalize a state budget.
Under the flat-tuition policy, students taking 12 hours or more will be charged for a 15-hour course load. A&M President Robert Gates said the policy will speed up the time it takes students to graduate by encouraging them to take at least 15 hours.
Some state lawmakers have pressured public universities to improve graduation rates as a way to save money and allow more students to go through the system.
But Peña, a member of A&M’s Hispanic Presidents Council, told regents that freshmen should have the option to take only 12 hours as freshmen to successfully make the college transition.
And while the measure could punish students for staying too long at A&M, it also will have negative effects for some who are serious about graduating in a timely manner, Peña said. In particular, it would hurt Hispanics from poor South Texas school districts, she said.
The board unanimously approved the flat-rate policy. But Regent Susan Rudd Bailey voted in favor only after telling Gates the university should monitor the policy’s effect on students.
Bailey said it’s important that other A&M goals — from improving diversity on campus to maintaining high freshman retention rates — don’t suffer at the expense of charging a flat tuition.
Gates said progress toward such goals is regularly tracked and the university will not shy from tweaking the flat-rate policy if it begins producing unintended consequences, such as falling grade-point averages or a shift among students toward classes perceived as easy.
Rebates for students who attend summer school are already expected to be added to the policy, Gates said. Students who take 30 credit hours in a year will get refunds for semesters in which they took less than 15.
Although opposition to flat tuition was the focus of most students who addressed regents during the meeting, some spoke against another possible year of hefty tuition increases at the College Station campus.
A&M will only have to increase tuition by $3 per credit hour if the Legislature sends the university $20 million to hire new faculty and give employees pay raises during each year of the biennium, Gates said.
Stanton Calvert, A&M’s vice chancellor for governmental relations, said the university would receive about half that funding in a budget written by the Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan.
But a proposed House budget would cut $20 million that the university received during the 2003 session for the faculty reinvestment plan.
Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on education, said in an interview earlier this month she intends to fight to get the money restored.
If the Senate’s budget were approved — it allocates $437 million to A&M for the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years — the university would increase tuition by less than $10 per credit hour, Gates said.
Gates said during Thursday’s hearing that A&M has done everything possible to cut costs and improve efficiency at the university. Tuition hikes and deeper cuts will occur if the state doesn’t send more money, Gates said.
“More changes and more eliminations are coming,” Gates said. “We’re cutting, we’re cutting a lot, and it hurts. You only have to ask some of the people we’re laying off how much it hurts