<p>Sorry for the long c/p. I can't link the story because you need a subscription to view it. From the Bloomington paper this afternoon. </p>
<p>IUs fall tuition may not be set until July
By Nicole Brooks331-4232 | <a href="mailto:nbrooks@heraldt.com">nbrooks@heraldt.com</a>
June 5, 2009</p>
<p>It could be July before Indiana University trustees are able to set tuition rates for a school year that starts Aug. 31.</p>
<p>Parents of incoming students continue to call the school, concerned about education costs.</p>
<p>Were still getting the calls. Parents are fairly anxious, Roger Thompson, IUs vice provost for enrollment management, said today. Its a tough situation, he added, given freshman orientation starts June 16.</p>
<p>Thompson said administrators tell parents what the president (McRobbie) has said the university appreciates the economic hardships of the day and will move quickly to set rates as soon as the state takes action.</p>
<p>Before they will set tuition IU trustees need to know the amount of state funding coming IUs way, said IU vice president and chief financial officer Neil Theobald.</p>
<p>Tuition hasnt been decided this late in the summer in Theobalds 16 years at IU, he said today.</p>
<p>The Board of Trustees meets Thursday and next Friday and IU Northwest in Gary, and administrators had hoped members could vote on salary and tuition at these meetings. But trustees have to wait on the General Assembly to pass a state budget. Legislators go into special session Thursday, and plan to approve a biannual budget before the current one expires June 30. That budget should spell out IUs state appropriations for the next two years.</p>
<p>Well turn on that almost immediately when we know where were at, Theobald said.</p>
<p>IU trustees arent scheduled to gather again until mid-August, so a special session will likely be called in July. We will almost certainly have to call a special meeting to do both of those, Theobald said of salaries and tuition rates.</p>
<p>The nine-member board must have a quorum, or five members, physically present at the meeting to approve agenda items. The others can participate by phone as long as five are there, trustees secretary Robin Roy Gress wrote in an e-mail.</p>
<p>At the July meeting no date has been set the trustees will come up with a tuition proposal, and then by law must give the public a 10-day comment period, Theobald said. After that, the university must hold one public forum on tuition rates.</p>
<p>Tuition is set two years at a time. In May 2007 trustees increased undergraduate tuition and fees 5 percent for that fall and another 5 percent for 2008-09. This increase was nearly double the rate of inflation at the time. For out-of-state undergraduates, the increases were 9 percent and 11 percent.</p>
<p>Then-president Adam Herbert said the increases were necessary to compete for talented faculty and keep up with rising costs.</p>
<p>Rising costs dont have Bloomington mom Terri Arnold too worried. Her youngest son, Eric, will attend IU in the fall as a freshman in the Jacobs School of Music. A jazz saxophone player, Eric was awarded a $4,000 music scholarship, and gets to claim in-state student status.</p>
<p>We really havent gotten anything definitive other than that yet, Arnold said today of fall tuition costs. Well, they gave us like a ballpark figure of what they think it might be. That ballpark figure, she said, was basically last years tuition, plus some, she said.</p>
<p>Her two elder sons attended private schools, so Arnold is happy with what she considers a deal at IU.</p>
<p>Its not as big an issue as it would be for other families.</p>
<p>The most recent proposal by the IN governor decreases funding to higher education by 4%. The legislature had proposed a 4% increase.</p>