CSU tuition hikes on the way

FORT COLLINS – Base tuition for undergraduates will increase by $620 a year for residents and $680 a year for non-residents under a draft version of CSU’s 2014 budget.

CSU President Tony Frank announced the proposed increases in a post on the Office of the President’s website Friday. The tuition hikes will account for $24.1 million of a total $30.6 million in new revenue that CSU aims to raise.

The tuition increase on undergraduate residents represents a 9-percent increase from the $3,437 that full-time students paid this year. For full-time non-residents, the tuition hike represents a 3 percent increase from $11,334.

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“We continue to worry about the impact of tuition increases,” Frank said. “We are working to strike the right balance between affordability and quality, and the fact that our tuition sets slightly below the average of our peers and we continue to see record enrollment would argue we’re probably not too far off balance.”

CSU is pouring more money into financial aid and is looking to fund a 3 percent salary increase, Frank said. Other expenses that would be funded by a tuition increase include utilities and maintenance, library and debt service.

Frank’s announcement should come as no surprise. The CSU president said in September that state funding cuts to higher education would lead the university to raise tuition rates, among other measures.

“We cannot solve our financial problems on the backs of student tuition,” Frank said during his fall address. “Nor can we solve them by ongoing cuts that sacrifice excellence on the alter of expediency.”

“We will not solve our problems through nontraditional revenues, nor by uncontrolled, massive enrollment growths,” he added. “Each of these approaches can be a part of the solution, but the key that fits this lock … is a balanced approach.”

The proposed tuition increases for fiscal 2014 mirrors last year’s tuition hikes of 9 percent for residents and 3 percent for non-residents.