UM-Flint students' tuition will increase for the 2009-2010 school year. On June 18, the University of Michigan board of regents approved the increase. Tuition will increase by 6.5 percent for undergraduate students and 4.9 percent for graduate students. The board also approved an 8.5 percent increase in financial aid.
The tuition increase is largely determined by a rise in fixed costs for the University. Unavoidably, health insurance costs are to rise by 10 percent and dental insurance and utility costs will rise by five percent.
The increase in financial aid will meet the significant rise in the amount of students applying for financial aid.
"I'm gonna' have to sell my horse," said senior Spanish major Hilary Walker. "I won't be able to participate in the soccer program I do during the fall, hanging out with my friends and stuff will have to go way down, and driving, I won't be able to drive and go on as many trips."
"The University continues to operate under enormous budget constraints," said Chancellor Ruth Person in a recent press release to the school.
Currently, the University is only receiving 30 percent of its revenue from the state. This means that the remaining 70 percent of revenue must be gathered from tuition. Person said she is doing what she can to reverse this by meeting with legislators in Lansing.
An increase in financial aid will help students somewhat, but the increase is specifically allocated for University grants only. Students won't see an increase in their individual awards. Instead, the increase in aid will make more awards available to more students.
According to Linda Grimshaw, assistant director of financial aid, 5,140 students have already applied for financial aid as of June 3 this year, compared to 3,848 for June of last year. That's a 25 percent increase.
Even with this help, the decline in state funding is affecting the University's students.
International student and business management major Adama Zoure is worried about what the increase will mean for himself and other international students.
"It affects most international students because we don't have the same tuition, because we pay almost four times the tuition than a regular American," said Zoure. "So I think it will be very, very difficult for us to be able to afford this price."
"I can see where they're coming from," said junior engineering major Michael Ranke. "I'm just a little bit surprised with the new housing that they would make enough money to cover all this, or at least to cover the extra stuff, like the renovations in French Hall, I'd assume they'd have more money than they apparently have."
In response, Vice Chancellor for Administration David Barthelmes said, "Housing is completely separate. It's an auxiliary operation, meaning that it has to support itself."
Barthelmes also said that the French Hall renovations were paid for by a grant, with the school only paying around 20 percent of the cost. Before this, French Hall hadn't been renovated since the 1970s.
"Those two things are not a factor in why our tuition rates went up," said Barthelmes.
Be the first to comment on this article!