SRU Tuition increase discussed

Trustee Kenneth Blair said SRU is in better shape financially than most other universities in the state system.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- John Thornburgh, a member of the state university Board of Governors and a Slippery Rock University trustee, told fellow trustees Friday that they should anticipate a tuition increase.
The Board of Governors is expected to decide at a special meeting July 20. Local trustees have no say.
Interim SRU President Robert Smith said after Friday's meeting that an expected surge in enrollment this fall will help the financial picture. Although a 4 percent enrollment increase had been anticipated, he said it now will likely be 5 percent or 6 percent.
That could bring in an extra $250,000, he said.
Keeping academic services
Smith told trustees that though he expects the state to impose budget cuts between $1.7 million and $3.1 million, he is determined not to reduce academic services.
He said that he will not cut any faculty positions and that, in fact, five new positions have been added to meet the anticipated enrollment increase.
What lies ahead in the 2004-05 academic year is uncertain, he said.
Better off than most
Trustee Kenneth Blair said SRU is in better shape financially than most other universities in the state system because it has money in reserve for staff health and retirement benefits.
He said that in three years, the state system will begin requiring universities to follow general accounting principles and will forbid unfunded liabilities.
Vice president Robert Watson reported that this coming academic year will be the first time women will get 50 percent of all athletic scholarships.
A new minor in film and media studies will be offered, Smith reported.
Trustees welcomed a new student member to the council -- Joshua Young, a senior political science major from Philadelphia.