UMS tuition plan will sustain quality, enhance aid

On May 21, the University of Maine System board of trustees is scheduled to set tuition rates for the new academic year, which starts in September 2007.

This year the trustees face a particularly difficult situation. Operating costs have increased substantially, and many of those costs – health care insurance and energy, for example – are difficult to abate in the short term. Over the past five years, state support for the universities has declined in inflation-adjusted dollars, and despite significant and ongoing cuts in administrative and operating expenses, some level of tuition increase will be necessary to both sustain and, where possible, improve academic quality.

The trustees have always regarded student tuition as “the revenue source of last resort.” Tuition rates are set after state funds, university fundraising and cost efficiencies have been factored into the budget. The combination of tuition, state support and other funding helps to ensure that each university offers high-quality academic programs and services and that every university student can and will earn a degree that is valued and respected by peers and potential employers.

The current average tuition and fee “price tag” for a full-time undergraduate student from Maine is $6,450 annually. However, the amount students actually pay is much less for the vast majority – 76 percent of all University of Maine System students receive financial aid (a combination of need-based and merit-based assistance).

As of this writing, we cannot offer any certainty about next year’s tuition rates. If the Legislature approves no more than the governor’s proposed $5 million increase in the university system’s appropriation – a modest but much appreciated increase – our tuition rates may need to exceed 12 percent to balance the budget – even after factoring in nearly $3 million in cuts which the university system recently self-imposed on our central office. On the other hand, a $6 million increase beyond the governor’s proposal would allow UMS to budget a smaller tuition increase of about 7 percent.

Legislators are working hard in a sincere attempt to increase the university system’s state appropriation beyond the proposed $5 million level. As one leading member of the Appropriations Committee stated last week, the state has underfunded the University of Maine System for the past 10 years or more, and he and his colleagues want to start remedying the situation.

Should the Legislature succeed, the university system would use the additional funds to reduce the size of the tuition increase. Furthermore, we would dedicate a portion of those funds to increasing need-based financial aid for Maine residents. That’s an important condition of the trustees’ tuition-setting decision.

It’s often said – and proved – that a college education is one of the smartest and surest investments a person can make. The upfront expense generates a significant return: The average lifetime earning power of a person with a four-year degree is more than $1 million greater than a person without a college degree. That monetary differential is even larger for individuals who have earned a graduate degree.

That’s why students and their families are wise to invest in a university education. It’s a value-added proposition, one that will pay for itself many times during the course of a lifetime. With more than 44,000 students enrolled annually, and with more than 110,000 alumni living throughout the state, the faculty, students, staff and graduates of Maine’s public universities collectively provide unequaled economic, social and cultural benefits to our state.

However, the value of that university education depends upon high-quality faculty, support staff and academic programs. The tuition levels the University of Maine System board of trustees will approve next week will be guided by two mutually dependent principles: the need to sustain and improve academic quality while at the same time ensuring need-based financial aid to help keep Maine’s public universities affordable and accessible to the people of our state.

Margaret A. Weston of Yarmouth is chairwoman of the University of Maine System board of trustees. Terrence J. MacTaggart of Hampden is system chancellor.