Tuition goes up 12% at Texas A&M

Action results from Legislature providing less funding than the school soughtBy MATTHEW TRESAUGUECopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Texas A&M University students will pay 12 percent more to attend classes this fall, continuing a statewide trend of escalating tuition rates.
President Robert Gates announced the increase Tuesday in the wake of a legislative session that produced fewer dollars than the university wanted.
Students will pay $137 per semester hour, up from $122.50 a year ago. The increase should generate about $12.5 million for the flagship College Station campus, officials said.
With most of the extra tuition money, Texas A&M intends to give faculty members and other employees a 3 percent raise, based on merit. The balance would go toward operating expenses, including rising gas and utility costs.
The regents had agreed in March to an increase between $3 and $19 per hour, depending on the amount of money state lawmakers provided.
"We were really hopeful going into the legislative session that we could keep it at $3," said K. Sue Redman, the university's senior vice president of finance. "It just didn't happen."
Student-body president Jim Carlson said he expected to pay more this fall, but the size of the increase troubled him, considering Texas A&M charged $101 per semester hour two years ago. "I'm disappointed," he said. "I wish it wasn't the case. I would like to see results in the future as far as how it benefits students."
Soaring costs have alarmed students and parents since the Texas Legislature deregulated tuition rates in 2003. Some lawmakers sought to regain control of tuition during the session that ended last month, but their efforts failed.
After two years of record increases, the University of Texas at Austin and University of Houston raised tuition about 5 percent for this fall. Prairie View A&M hiked tuition from $94 per semester hour to $113, an increase of 20 percent.
"More than anything, it's catch-up," said Dan Williams, vice president of finance and administration at Prairie View A&M. "We didn't give pay raises last year. We will have to do something for our employees' bottom line."
The situation could have been worse for the university. After warnings from campus leaders, lawmakers provided $4 million a year to pay off debts, eliminating the possibility of an additional tuition increase of $27.50 per hour.
matthew.tresaugue@chron.com