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[jonesey]

From The New York Times:

In this particularly hard year, in which university endowments have been hammered along with state coffers, federal stimulus money has helped most avoid worst-case scenarios. The 10-campus University of California system, for example, has received $716 million in stimulus funds to offset its $1 billion gap. But that money is a temporary fix. A quip circulating among college presidents: The stimulus isn’t a bridge; it’s a short pier.

This fall, flagships still had to cut costs and raise tuition, most by 6.5 percent or more. And virtually all of the nation’s top public universities are likely to push through large increases in coming years.

Universities have reached deep in their pockets to protect vulnerable students from tuition increases. Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California, defends his university’s record in preserving financial aid, noting that families with incomes under $60,000 pay not one penny of their fees. “The real crunch,” he says, is helping families that make roughly $100,000. “The most at risk at this time really are going to be the middle class.”

Public universities have historically been underpriced: average in-state tuition is $7,020 this year. A re-evaluation had to happen, says David E. Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, because the benefit has been to higher income families. “You can’t justify that subsidy for wealthier students,” he says. The trend, accelerated by the economic shakeup, is from cheap to what he calls “moderate” tuition rates, at least by private-school standards.

Mr. Shulenburger sees the tuition increases as part of a larger movement toward privatization of the most desirable flagships. With state contributions largely flat or down over the last 15 years, and enrollments and costs up, many top flagships are turning to nonpublic sources for money and, in some cases, accepting larger numbers of out-of-state students, who often pay twice the tuition of residents.

Thoughts?

[svenc]

Trust me, I'm all for public support of universities (and my livelihood depends on it!), but a quick look at my campus illustrates the extent to which public support is subsidizing the education of people of considerable means.  The stories of students given a choice between BigStateU and a private apartment or new car vs. Private University and a shared dorm room and no car aren't just fairy tales.

I think that the schools that are raising tuition right now, but also raising their levels of need-based aid, are going about things in exactly the right way.

[locutus]

Haven't quite finished yet but here's a ramble of a thought. Some of those stats about percentages of out of state students need a little clarification. Are they undergraduate students, graduate students or both? I'm familiar with the numbers for one of the schools mentioned so I suspect they are reporting all students combined.  Graduate and undergraduate students don't always pay the same tuition, and there's a big difference, certainly in the eyes of the locals with having lots of undergrads from out of state on campus versus graduate students from out of state. I also think it's relevant in regards to discussing the mission of the state school to educate students from the state.

The idea of bringing in a lot of out of state students for the medical or MBA program seems very different from doing the same for the undergraduate population.