MSU students to pay more during summer

Michigan state university students will see slight bumps in their summer tuition to help make up for less-than-expected funding from Lansing this year.

The 1.2% increase will mean a boost from $311 per credit hour to $314.75 a credit hour and from $442 in mandatory fees to $447.50 in fees.

Technically the increase applies to courses taken in the spring semester, but university officials say students will not actually pay more for those courses. It is a bookkeeping measure, and the university will transfer money from its reserves to cover costs.

"For practical purposes ... students won't see a tuition increase until the summer," said Dave Byelich, MSU's budget and planning director.

As the state struggled to balance its budget, trustees approved the university's $940 million budget June 13 based on a 3% increase in state appropriations -- to $298.8 million -- that legislators were discussing.

As part of that budget, trustees also approved a 6.8% tuition increase and gave MSU's president the authority to boost that tuition in the spring if the state didn't hand out the 3% increase.

Any vote to change spring tuition traditionally continues to the summer tuition, said MSU spokesman terry denbow.

When state appropriations came in only 1% above the previous year's budget, it left a $5.8-million shortfall in the approved budget.

Although the budget office raised tuition starting in the spring to close that gap, Byelich said they didn't want to pass on the increase immediately to students in such tumultuous economic times. Instead, it will pull from reserve funds and from unexpected tuition revenues that came from additional students this fall.

university enrollment has increased from 46,045 to 46,648 students, the school announced Friday.

Tags: terry denbow,state appropriations,state university students,michigan state university,tuition revenues,mandatory fees,summer tuition,msu students,budget office,university enrollment,tuition increase,reserve funds,economic times,planning director,university officials,spring semester,shortfall,gap,bookkeeping,previous year

Saturday, October 25, 2008 |

---